She would return
by Kerstae
Summary: Set after the break up in season 3, Logan is waiting on Veronica to call him back after that voicemail he left her. She does some soul searching. Season 3 AU. Veronica/Logan some Mac/Dick No Copyright infringements intended.
1. Chapter 1

Logan POV

Logan watched powerlessly as Veronica stormed off and slammed the door behind her, he knew from experience that running after her could result in that the small Taser she kept in her purse would find its way to his abdomen with a few hundred volts along for the trip. He didn't want to make the mistake of trying to chase after her encase her father thought he was falling into old habits, he had warned Logan once about ever raising his voice to his daughter. But honestly, none of the million reasons he told himself over and over for why he had just stood there like an idiot while the love of his life fled from him were the truth. He had been paralyzed, his whole world had tumbled down around him and he was helpless to watch. Ever since that night during winter break when he woke up with a splitting headache, miserable and hating himself with Madison Sinclair curled around him babbling her vapid nonsense, he had lived in fear of news of it reaching Veronica.

The memory of it made him feel sick.

 _"You KNEW how I feel about her…"_ the sound of the pain in her voice had sliced through any of his excuses leaving him mute. _"this is something I am never getting past"_ she had told him, he downed another shot of whiskey, finally out of the beer Dick had stocked up for the party he was planning that weekend and into the Liquor cabinet. It was sort of an unspoken rule between the two of them that the Liquor cabinet was off-limits encase the hotel called the Sheriff's department about underage drinking, but he was out of beer and the thought of not getting blinding drunk was not tolerable right now. He stared at the empty bottle and ran his fingers through his hair, she still hadn't called him back and he was a wreck… it had been two days. Dick wasn't talking to him because Veronica had told him about his indiscretions with Madison and the only calls he had received so far had been from the front desk and one from Trina, his horrid step-sister, asking for another "favour" because of a mix-up with her plane tickets and she really had to go see her new boyfriend for some wonderful opportunity. Everyone in his life was so fake… everyone except Veronica. She was the most real thing he had ever seen. She made him real, he was more himself when he was with her than he was any place else. Made him worthy of inhabiting space on the planet. She was the champion of lost causes, the defender of the downtrodden, murderer catching, rapist snaring, and petite camera wielding badass.

He had poured his heart out in that voicemail, surely she must know that? The thought of her giving up on them, on giving up on him... he just wanted to disappear... he snorted pitifully.

"If I was DUNCAN…." He shouted at the empty bottle on the table. He could still see her comparing them sometimes, her gaze would get just that little far away when she looked around the apartment two boys had shared in the Neptune Grand. She had still had a drawer in the bedroom with her Java Hut uniform and a clean t shirt long after Duncan had taken off on the run with his daughter Faith. Logan had moved into the larger bedroom after it became evident that he wouldn't be coming back. In the months before he had saved her on the roof from Beaver, he had lingered over the small items in that drawer, debating whether he should return them but never quite able to let them go. They were a small piece of perfect in his otherwise empty life, he had hidden them in a drawer by his bed, taking a small pink t shirt out every so often to smell the scent of her, imagining her in the other room, arriving back any moment to rip it from his hands and fill the Veronica shaped emptiness in the fabric. He had tormented himself with thoughts of her showing up to demand them back before she would fall into his arms… God that summer after Felix had died; Veronica had been the only thing that had gotten him through those days. They hadn't even done much more than kiss back then, and those months had been torture for him. When he watched Duncan and Veronica get back together, he almost lost his damn mind, started an affair with his best friends step mom just to forget her. Losing Lilly and his mother... the truth coming out about his abusive homicidal father. Logan had no one else everyone in town had looked at him like he was a murderer; everything in his life had been going wrong except Veronica. She was his salvation; the only peace he had found had been in her arms, kissing her felt like the next 60 years of his life. Still he couldn't help the feeling that someday she would just disappear like a dream. Couldn't shake the insecurity that if Duncan ever came back he would lose her in an instant. He loved her with a part of himself that was vital, primal, he had dated girls before. Hannah, Lilly... fooled around with meaningless sex with women like Kendall... but none of it compared to how the rest of the world fell away when Veronica had given him even a sliver of her time, usually with her bizarre questions and requests during her investigations.

God he missed the feel of her... he hadn't been able to go anywhere near his bed in two days, he kept staring at the door waiting for her to return. He realized in some ways he was always waiting for her to return, he didn't feel like he existed away from her. She was his Home, and the realization that she was someone, he would never ever be able to walk away from had terrified him. He had tried to break it off with her weeks ago; he had known that he loved her too much. He had reasoned that they should save themselves the pain, before he lost himself too deeply. Every time he woke up to her, every time they had sex was an earth shattering, reality altering celestial event, he was getting lost in her and the doubt she didn't share those feelings scared him, so he tried to break it off before he gave in and she decided he had broken some rule she had and she was done with him, and he would have nothing left. He would never have gotten over her, but he might have had a chance to learn to live without her. She had come back and fought for them, he had spent days trying not to cave in and go track her down and beg her to give him another chance.. Then she had knocked on his door and the two of them had fallen back into bed, she had chosen him. She had come for him, and he was done, he lost whatever reservation he had not to give himself to her completely, she always avoided intimacy, and he was determined to ease her out, to give her the time she needed, he had been committed this time, he was going to try to be his best self, to earn her trust, do well at college, try and win over her father.

He fought every day not to spook her by getting the ring in the jewellery store he had seen during one of their little stake-out trips she had lingered at a little too wantonly while she tried to track down a missing diamond a client of her fathers was sure had been switched out with a fake. He had never been surer of anything in his life, now as the hours ticked by he couldn't help but obsess over every time she had passed up dinner with him to chase up some clue, that day of the bus crash, when he thought she had been hurt, his world had stopped. He had called everyone he could think of to make sure she was okay and then she had ignored him... It crushed him when he had found her wrapped up in Duncan's arms, but he had never been so relieved, he didn't know where this need he had to protect her was born, maybe it was because he hadn't been able to protect Lilly, or his mother. He fought that instinct every day so he could be with her, knowing he would lose her if he gave in. Now he had screwed up anyway. He had always been irrevocably hers, ever since the day he had thought she needed saving at the Camelot Motel with the ATF agent.

"Cos you never were and you never will be mine…." He sang to himself as he played some of the songs from her IPod. Seeing if there was anything in the playlist that could make him feel closer to her.

"If I was a Case… If I had something she wanted…" he mused as he spoke to the empty room, pouring himself another glass of some clear liquid. _If I had something she wanted_ but he didn't. "Obviously" he said in cheers to the blue bottle, downing it he realized it was Gin. Veronica tasted like Gin and Tonic when they had their parties... _God, was there no escaping this?_

He thought back to his chance to tell her, they had been having their usual witty banter, discussing the hooker co-ed case, and she had asked him point blank if he had been with someone else while they had been broken up. Curled naked with her beside him, he hadn't wanted to ruin the moment. He should have just confessed… who knows what cruelty Madison had spewed to make this mistake so much worse than it was?

"Do you still love me?" he had asked after he had given her the highlights of a meaningless encounter with some horrid nameless girl he wasn't proud of. "Yea" she had replied forgivingly... would she still have said that if he had told her that girl had been Madison? Could he have talked her around then? She hated Madison, he had known that.

She had never said she loved him directly, it was always just implied. He wished she had said it, then he wouldn't be tormented with every conversation they had ever had of her when she was voicing her disapproval of his actions. He looked at his empty glass in misery, sniffing the small t shirt in his hand. He had been too embarrassed to give her the contents of the stuff she had left before he moved into the room; he didn't want to have to explain why he kept it in a secure box with the last of the most important stuff he owned salvaged after the house fire.

 _Marshmallows and Promises…_ the only thing he wanted on his lips was Veronica. She was like a drug, and nothing in the hotel suite would quite get him high enough. She would listen to that voicemail soon... she would know how broken he was without her… she would come back... he had her favorite t-shirt and she had left her ipod… she had to.

The hours rolling by felt like something inside him were hollowing out. He would wait, because if she didn't, it would kill him.


	2. Chapter 2

Veronica Mars flicked through the rails in the lingerie department, tonight was the night. Her gaze kept going back to the provocative lacy black number on the mannequin in the middle of the tables. It was bolder than she was used to, she had never owned anything like it before, a very flattering lacy black bra and knickers set, paired with a suspender belt and some very seductive stockings. Feminine and exactly what she was looking for. Shyly, she had cornered an assistant to help her pick out her size, hiding the bag in her backpack, her cheeks burning at the thought of her dad finding out she even owned something like this.

She pulled out some crumbled notes from her purse and left them on the counter, fleeing from the store encase someone saw her. Tonight was the night, she reminded herself.

 _Logan Echolls was in a world of heartbroken misery_ she mused.

She had broken up with her on/off again boyfriend Logan Echolls, son of movie star turned murderer, Aaron Echolls a few weeks ago, and had given him complete radio silence ever since. Ignored his calls, made a point of being seen actively getting on with her life without him. Although, she had been just as heartbroken, the fact that word of her private investigatory exploits around campus were getting back to him via Dick Casablancas' his roommate helped to create her indifferent façade.

It hadn't exactly been an easy relationship; they had this complicated love/hate relationship made only more confusing because of the magnetic pull towards one another. Their lives were chaos, people ended up dead whenever they were around. Starting with, Logan's girlfriend and Veronica's best friend, the now deceased, Lilly Kane. Last year, Veronica had still been under scrutiny from the FBI for aiding Lilly's brother Duncan flee the country with his illegitimate daughter, Faith Manning. Veronica had once thought Logan was responsible for Lilly's murder, but it had actually been his father. Her suspicions had stolen so much time from them and had caused many arguments. Logan had tormented her mercilessly during their school days because Veronica had been unable to let the real killer escape justice. Even through all his plotting against her, he had been thoroughly captivated, went out of his way to challenge her.

He confessed that he had been secretly infatuated with her in the months after Lilly's death, never acting on it out of love for his friend Duncan, who had completely shut down with the loss of his sister. Going after Veronica had seemed distasteful but her determination to uncover the truth about Abel Koontz's innocence and find the real culprit had garnered his admiration, even if it had angered him that she wouldn't let it go. The longer she had been digging into things, the longer it had taken him to be able to move on from the death of his girlfriend. When he lost his mother, Veronica had been the perfect person to help him discover what had happened. He hadn't just lost Lilly when his father had bashed her head in, he had lost Veronica as his friend also, and that investigation had brought her back into his life. Watching her fall back in love with Duncan had been torture he had told her, he had secretly spent most of his senior year pining for her.

Especially after the two boys had moved into the same Kane Industries Penthouse Suite in the Neptune Grand hotel and he had no escape from watching the two of them together in their most private moments. He had delighted in interfering with their romance by bringing Kendall Casablanca's over as often as possible to try and make Veronica jealous, he hadn't ever been sure it had worked, but if she was honest, it had. He had gone out of his way to remind her of their attraction to each other at every possible opportunity, making his ridiculous offers to fool around behind Duncan's back, accusing her of secretly stalking him, telling her to her face how much he missed her, even if she hadn't been able to see the blatant obvious truth of his words. "If the cuddling was the best part… he didn't do it right" Logan had taunted her after catching her sneaking out of Duncan's hotel room.

She had treated him with such indifference for months; it had driven him crazy he had told her. It wasn't until he had started dating Hannah shortly after Duncan's fleeing the country that he had started to notice the cracks in her armour. Even if their interactions had initially been acerbic and one sided. He kept dropping hints, teasing her to ask him to the Sadie Hawkins Dance, which she hadn't, but they had ended up dancing anyway. He had tried shyly to ask her to his Alterna-Prom, he had desperately organized after their actual Prom had been cancelled, the thought of not getting the opportunity to see her before graduation, to declare his feelings had been too much, but she had misinterpreted his signals and invited half his classmates along as well.

Their love wasn't like most other peoples he had told her, they had a connection that went far beyond anything else in his experience, they were star crossed. She had helped get the information that exonerated him when Logan had been wrongfully investigated of the slaying of their classmate Felix Toomes and he had come to her rescue multiple times, most notably from his best friend, Dick Casablanca's younger brother just a few months ago. Her rapist at Shelly Pomeroys party. Walking the short distance from the car park to the two bedroom apartment she shared with her father, she forced the memories of that night out of her head. This wasn't some frivolous teenage drama between them. It was fated, although they did have awful communication problems when they weren't engaged in a lot of heavy petting.

No one wrote songs about the loves that came easy, he had explained to her, and their story was anything but Easy. Cassidy Casablanca's had outdone even Aaron Echolls in the murder category, he almost succeeded in killing Veronica twice, the first time had been during the bus crash he had plotted at the start of their senior year and the second when he tried to force Veronica off the top of the Neptune Grand Hotel when she had connected all the dots. Logan had saved her that night.

Glancing at herself in the mirror she was impressed with the results, her normally petite breasts looked enticing in the lingerie she had purchased. He may have had his indiscretions with Madison Sinclair over winter break when they hadn't been dating, but tonight she was going to ruin him for all other women. She slipped into her favourite heels and retouched her gloss. Thankful that her father was off on a stake-out so she could get ready in peace. She pulled on her black knee length coat and looked at the results, yes, it was the correct length. No one would ever guess she wasn't wearing a dress underneath it. She slipped a small t shirt and skirt into her handbag and picked up her car keys.

She checked the GPS on Dick's phone, he was still heading towards the Hearst campus for a fraternity party, good, Dick wouldn't be home tonight, she felt confident that they would be alone for the evening, she had seen Logan two days ago in the elevator with a rather chatty young girl whom Veronica didn't recognise. He had looked shocked, hopeful and visibly despondent. She knew that meant he would be spending his time gaming and feeling sorry for himself.

She paced the small lobby, the keycard in her hand. She had purposely left it that little bit later, he would probably be asleep when she arrived. Stepping into the elevator, she pushed the button to his floor. She felt nervous, Logan was so much more experienced with these things, Veronica's only other experience of seduction had been with Duncan Kane, and that was admittedly lack lustre, she hadn't understood until her first night with Logan, exactly what she had been missing. Being with Duncan was like teddy bears and ice cream, it was pleasant and it felt good, but it lacked the same intensity.

Desire… she thought. She was never hungry for Duncan the way she craved Logan, he made music with her body. Had they been intimate on this level before she had broken up with him at the beginning of senior year, she would have been powerless to resist him. Truthfully, these past few weeks away from him, she had been starving for his touch. Now the shoe was on the other foot, she was going to seduce him. Tonight she was going show him how truly be Epic their love was. She was going to use her imagination, she would please every part of his body, and have him cry out her name, knock all thoughts of Madison from his memory. She was going to own him. Tonight Veronica was totally unguarded, she as give into their chemistry and would take him to a place no one else could, their love was addictive and she was going to get them higher than they had ever been.

Exiting the elevator, she played with the key card slightly. Careful to open it quietly, walking into the hotel suite she stepped towards his bedroom, the television was off and but the door to his room was still open a little, she glanced towards the bed, he lay sleeping, shirtless, on his bed. She choked down the thoughts of insecurity, marvelling at his arms, his chest, the covers curled around his waist, she allowed the moment to reassure her, she opened her coat and discarded it onto the floor, approaching him softly. She felt like such a voyeur, was she doing the right thing? It wasn't exactly like she had permission from him to be here.

She had come here with the intention of consuming him, of having him fill her, marking him as hers, and hers alone. Her cheeks burning, she was so hot for him… had God ever made a thing so fine?

She grabbed the end of the duvet and pulled it from the bed, he stirred slightly, waking to find her standing there watching him, his expression was one of dreamy confusion. Not quite sure if she was real until she kicked off her heels and approached him on the bed.

"What's going on?" he asked uncertainly, not quite awake and a little disoriented, half expecting to find a video camera, or a tazered in her hand as part of some cruel revenge.

"Really Echolls? I prefer it when you call me Baby" she purred as she climbed towards him in her most feminine sultry voice.

His mind raced to clear the sleep fog and catch up… Veronica was here… straddling him with her thighs, wearing the sexiest piece of clothing he had ever seen.

"Did I finally make it onto your to-do list?" he question mockingly as he sat up slightly. His body waking and starting to betray him. _What was happening right now?_ She hadn't spoken to him in weeks and now she was inches from his lips, her hips slightly grinding against him. His breath quickened, eyes widening as he became aware of the heat of her body.

"Yes, you have been the only thing I have wanted to do all day, I need one of those hugs that turns into Sex" she teased guiding his hand to her breast.

"This isn't funny Veronica, you can't play games with me… you broke up with me remember?" he reminded her simply, the pain in his voice.

"It's hard to resist a bad boy whose a good man" she whispered as she placed her hand against his face and kissed him, guided his left hand to curl around her hip. Hesitant he responded, pulling her closer and moaning as she explored his mouth with her tongue, he felt himself begin to stiffen as her hand reach down his torso.

"Wh-whats your thinking exactly here…?" Logan panted as he pulled himself away from her mouth, but she didn't stop, just kissed her way along his neck, her fingers in his hair.

"Isn't it obvious? I've got a filthy mind, and you've been on it" she replied, nibbling his ear lobe.

He inhaled her scent, she was so close to him, the taste of her lipstick in his mouth, the feel of her body writhing on top of him. He didn't really understand quite what her motivations were, Veronica had always been slightly nervous when they were together, and now he could barely contain himself, he pulled away from her long enough to search her eyes for some kind of answer, but the sight of her in his lap, dressed in her lingerie left him speechless.

"You are my favourite dirty thought, Logan Echolls" she said as she clutched her legs around his waist.

"Your favourite?" he said incredulously, "So you have just come to ravish me huh?" he asked as his fingers traced the bra she was wearing, and his other hand ran absently along the feeling of the black stockings. His throat was starting to get dry… _she was so sexy in this outfit…_ he thought _but what was her reasoning?_ His body was begging to continue what they had started.

"To Seduce you" she declared, biting her lip slightly.

"You all out of sonnets?" he mused tenderly, when she was around, his whole body knew it. She had a power over him before she ever decided to embrace her obvious sex appeal.

"Stop teasing me" she pleaded as he cupped her breast, digging her nails into his shoulder and kissing him again. Was he trying to humiliate her? She wanted him badly, and the knowledge that she had come over here, dressed like this, just for him was interfering with his brain that said they should talk this out, and his body which just wanted to plunge deep into her, his hands rubbing her skin. Gathering her up in his arms he lifted her and pivoted until she was laying beneath him, she protested slightly when he caught her wrists to prevent her from distracting him. He pressed his masculine body against the petite blond in front of him. _Teasing her? He hadn't even begun to tease her…_

She wriggled helplessly beneath him, but he needed an answer from her..

"Did you come here wearing that just for me?" he demanded.

"Yes" she confirmed. _Oh God…_ His mind and body were fighting in opposition, he wasn't sure he would be able to resist her but he didn't want to be reduced to a booty call.

"Is this all you want?" he asked her firmly, he was so hot for her.

"What I want is your tongue inside me Logan… I'll play with yours if you play with mine" she taunted him. "I've been thinking about you, and it hasn't exactly been PG" _Damn that mouth… when did she learn to talk like this?_

"Did breaking up with me turn you into some kind of naughty sex freak?" he queried, trying to maintain his composure and ignore the fact seeing this side of her was arousing him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and gyrated against him, he was hard and eager for her and they both knew it.

"I find it makes the pillow talk much more interesting" she mocked, growing impatient, since when was he this chatty? His breath was hot against her neck and the weight of him was pressing into her.

"Did you come to get back together?" he gasped as she rubbed herself along him. He was only wearing his boxer but before this went any further he needed an answer. If she had just come to use him, it would break his heart all over again. Waiting for her had been agony… if this is all she wanted him for… if this is all they were left… "Or should I be expecting racy tabloid headlines tomorrow?" having her so close to him, their breath intermingling, the goose bumps on their skin, her pinned helpless underneath him.

"I came to see if these clothes looked as nice on your bedroom floor" she told him, a hint of challenge in her gaze. She hadn't answered the question and he glared at her. "I want you to fuck me so good I forget why I was mad at you" she continued softly, her voice barely more than a whisper. Relief swelled inside him and he let go of her wrists, his lips captured hers that he could do, he pulled her closer to him, his hands tracing the length of her body.

"God Veronica… I've been an idiot…" he whispered looking down at her, his eyes blazed into hers. "How could I ever…." he said as she responded by reaching her hands down his shoulders as he began kissing down her body. She felt like she was on fire. _God he wanted her._

"You are wearing too many clothes" she informed him, eager to keep up their momentum.

"And you… this.. you should only wear this" he admired as he moved her bra aside to capture her nipple in his mouth. The feel of the stockings glided along his waist and he gripped her ass and pulled her against him. It felt like an eternity since he had seen her and that absence had left him starving for the taste of her.

"Logan…" She moaned as he slipped his hand between them and touched her, she was so ready for him and he thought he was going to drive her wild with need. Sliding his finger into her lacy underwear he played with her and she arched her back, he bit her nipple and coaxed a soft moan from her. _Christ he was so turned on,_ she tightened against his fingers and buried her hands in his hair, the sight of her in this lingerie with her eyes closed and head thrown back against the mattress as she called out his name again was one of the most erotic things he had ever experienced, his erection grew larger. She was so wet and warm… he could feel a light sweat break out on his forehead, he was using almost all of his control not to tear the lacy fabric away and push himself inside to feel her squeezing around him. He licked her nipple and worked his way up to her throat, if she wanted to seduce him, it hadn't worked, he mused, slow and methodical he played with her until her body submitted to his touch and her thighs began shaking, he was in charge. The look of her so lost in pleasure was invigorating, he had never seen her, this uninhibited before. She began to rub her hips against his hand desperately, gasping, he rested his head on her shoulder and watched as she started shaking, he felt her insides begin to twitch in his palm, she was trembling defencelessly, her mouth open in a silent wordless cry of pleasure. She was having an orgasm he realized. Her eyes were closed and her lips stretched in an involuntary smile, her feet pointed and she tightened her legs against him, slowing his movements. She gasped for air and tried to prop herself up a little.

"Did you like that?" he asked her, gratified as she stared at him, panting. She swallowed hard and nodded heartily. "You seem a little speechless there Mars, compared to when you first decided to woke me up… to torment me with this" he mused as he pulled her bra strap down and kissed her collar bone. Quickly and without further discussion she pulled his lips to hers, her tongue explored his mouth and she relaxed her legs enough to allow him to His strong and gentle hands began to stroke her. He drove his fingers deeper into her. She was whining with pleasure and that was good. She would climax again right away. He felt her begin to spasm again and she moaned into his mouth, helpless and clinging to him. She was so responsive he couldn't contain himself, he ached, he took the backs of her thigh in my hands, adjusting her legs around his waist. He reached under her and brought her right up to him, moving the knickers to one side, he freed himself from his shorts. Her eyes bore into his as he slipped himself inside her, her body clenching around him, he moaned loudly and whispered her name as he began to thrust purposefully into her.

"Oh Logan… I missed you…" she purred as sweat began to bead down his back, rolling her hips in unison with his thrust, making him cry out in pleasure.

"God, I need you Veronica" he confessed, her teeth biting into his shoulder as he began to fuck her harder, his thrusts getting stronger, he ran his hand along her legs, the feel of the stockings smooth against his back, "you drive me crazy…showing up here… dressed like this…" he told her, his other hand sliding beneath her bra to grip her breast.

"Deeper Logan" she requested digging her nails into his back. "I have been wanting you all night…" she told him.

"Only tonight?" he queried, kissing her neck slowly, he stilled his movements, letting her feel every inch of him filling her but moving achingly slow. She cried in frustration and he felt her pussy tighten around him, he was teasing her.

"All day…" she admitted. He rotated his hips until his body rubbed against her clitoris…

"Just today?" he asked playfully, making her writhe beneath him, it was taking all his control not to take her as vigorously as his body demanded.

"Dammit Logan… you know how much I crave you" she begged, rubbing her hands along his chest, he shivered at the words.

"You crave me?" he asked, sucking on her ear lobe.

"Yes…" she whispered, her breath shaky… "Always…" she was tired, panting and every cell in her body wanted to beg him to take her, own her.. it was excruciating.

"Tell me about it.. you missed me?" he interrogated her as he began to slowly increase his pace.

"I-I did…" she moaned.

"Did you crave me?" he questioned as he kissed her passionately, she nodded, and he smiled, he loved this control, watching her body obey an instinct she didn't know it possessed when she began to tremble again. He inhaled her scent and moaned as her inside pulsed around him, she was coming again, hot and desperate he began to pound faster into her. He wouldn't be able to last much longer. She pulled his hair and cried out his name, it was the sexiest sound; he would be replaying it over in his head for the next 20 years.

"I love you Logan" she declared.. he stilled, his eyes beginning to swell, it was the first time she had ever said it to him. He grabbed her hips and began to thrust into her longer and harder.

"Say that again…" he instructed.

"I love you Logan" she gasped.

"Again" he commanded, his voice rasping as he increased his pace.

"I-I.. Love you…" she gasped in surprise as he suddenly pulled them both upwards, sitting back onto his knees, he pulled her into his lap, sliding inside her, the weight of her body, burying his inside her even deeper, he placed his hands on her hips.

"Again" he ordered, an edge to his voice as he searched her face, his eyes betraying a vulnerability she had never seen before. She had always assumed he knew… _could he really have been this unsure of the depth of her feelings for him?_ Tenderness crept in her voice and her heart ached for him. _How could he possible not know?_

"I Love You Logan Echolls" she said softly, resting her arms on his shoulders as she wiped away a tear forming in his eyes. "You are mine.. and I am yours" she said kissing him and he hugged her to him.

"Don't leave me again Veronica…" he told her, the openness in his eyes was overwhelming. She knew then he was right, this feeling between them, it was deeper than sex, deeper than attraction or even friendship. It was primal, they were too flames from the same fire. This love was ageless, eternal.. and it consumed them both.


	3. Chapter 3

Logan Echolls gripped the sides of the shower door and gasped as his girlfriend Veronica curled her hand around his waist and ran her fingers along the length of his shaft, she had sneaked into the shower behind him, he had thought she was exhausted and still lay sleeping in the master bedroom of his penthouse hotel suite. He laughed as she nibbled kisses against his ribcage, she was so short.

"Careful" he teased her, wrapping his hand around her wrist and turned to face her. "This is a shower, and I have been enjoying this dirty girl side of you… I wouldn't want you to accidentally go washing that filthy mouth of yours out with soap.. Especially not after the things you have been doing to me with it" he said, cupping her face and pulling her lips to his. He shuddered at the memory of her tongue curling along his shaft as she had taken him into her mouth, sucking on his length and playing with him until he had helplessly pleaded with her to stop tormenting him. She hadn't relented and the teasing had lasted for a very long time. He retaliated by holding firmly to her writhing hips pinning her down with his head between her thighs and licked and teasing her just as eagerly until she was left shaking and trembling calling out his name, over and over. They had spent the last few hours entwined as he varied the rhythmic motion of their bodies colliding together.

He marvelled at the petite insatiable woman in front of him as she traced her hands over his body mesmerized. "I'm not sure it works that way" she pouted, he was restricting her explorations. His body was athletic and tanned from an entire summer spent surfing around Neptune, she wanted to map him with her finger tips, plot land marks with her kisses and chart the best routes to drive him wild with need. _Mutually assured destruction…_ she thought as she felt him caress her breasts, he backed them deeper into the shower and pressed her against the cold tiles. He was drained; she had come to his room wearing nothing but a raincoat, her favourite heels and the sexiest lingerie he had ever seen, seduced him and the two of them had proceeded to have what he could only describe as the best sex of his life, that had been hours ago and they hadn't rested much.

Making up for lost time he mused, a lump forming in his throat as he recalled the weeks prior to this moment, days spent endlessly waiting for her to return his phone call, unable to forgive himself for their falling out, she had surprised him by showing up and initiating their make-up sex marathon.

He reached behind her and turned on the shower, the cool water was a welcome distraction from the temptation of lathering the soap over her breasts. "No?" he questioned, sliding a hand down her stomach "You come to my bed, enthral me with those black lace panties of yours, you ravish me over and over" he told her, his lips brushing against her ear as he slipped his fingers lower to guide some of the water running down his arm until it rained against her pussy, "you tease me with that mouth, say all these sexy naughty things to me, make me blush and misbehave, you screw me until the point I can't remember where you end and I begin, you wear me out and now you are trying to imprison me and have your way with me in my own shower with your kinky games?" he scolded playfully, swirling his fingers in circles around her clitoris. She gasped and bit her lip, running her hands down his biceps, he towered above her, his expression purposeful but unreadable.

"You can't be ravished, you are so willing" she protested.

"A boy might want a little Romance, Mars" he chuckled. "Where are my flowers? You could at least of bought me dinner before you came here and turned me into your plaything" he teased as he kissed her deep and slow, his tongue exploring her mouth in similar motion to his fingers slipping into her.

"I'd rather get to know you" she gasped.

"Know me how?" he asked his eyes boring into hers.

"The good stuff… know what makes you tremble, what gets your heart racing… how to make you pant and moan and beg for me… I want steamy, passionate, burning desire… I want all of you Logan" she declared. "I want to take every inch of you…" she purred wantonly. Gods Damn… he still wasn't used to hearing her talk this way and was powerless against its effects.

"Every inch of me? Here? In the Shower? Like This?" he asked her, plunging his fingers inside her, she squeezed around him.

"Yes!" she cried out.. "You know I'm a sucker for all that cute romantic stuff" she said playfully.

"It is so unfair that your mouth has the power to make me forget what I was saying" he admonished, his kisses moving along her neck, he could barely tear himself away.

"You are the only one who could ever make me feel like this when we are together" she confessed, arching her back against his hand. She was so eager, so ready, helpless and pleading. He kissed her forehead, the warm water washed over their bodies, she smelled of papayas and the suds around her breasts made her slippery to the touch.

"I swear to you, I am not going to stop until your legs are shaking and everyone on this floor knows my name" he promised, his expression was serious. "Tell me again" he commanded.

"I want all of you Logan" she breathed against him, their bodies sliding together as he raised her leg against his waist and pulled her towards him.

"You know what I want to hear" he scolded. She knew what he needed to hear, but she was holding out again.

"Oh yea?" she murmured innocently.

"Veronica…" He warned, rubbing his erection against her, pulling her tighter, the tip of him pressed deliberately against her. Holding back was torturous, she was so close, so warm, so deliciously wet, he hooked his arm behind her knee and lifted her leg upwards until she was on her tip toes, her arms around his neck as she tried to regain her balance, he smiled as she clung to him, stranded and completely at his mercy. He needed to hear her say it. "You drive me crazy, and that's really quite unfair" Part of him was going insane when he wasn't touching her, but he wanted to hear her tell him again.

"I love you Logan Echolls" she told him tenderly, smiling. It still amused her how hearing those words would drive him wild with need to possess her body. _Had her voice been dipped in sugar?_ because those were still the sweetest words he had ever heard. He held her gaze and pulled her on top of his throbbing shaft, the water running down his back. Filling her, feeling her body clench tightly around him. He still couldn't believe it, even after all this time, that he got to wake up and call her his, all his. Years spent pining for her, watching her be with other people and now after all the chaos surrounding them, the trials, the false accusations, murders, the ruined lives and chaos. They were together, she finally admitted she need him as much as he needed her. It was a terrifying, heart wrenching kind of love that made him simultaneously content and at peace, and that he might lose his damn mind. Totally addicted to her, he could never look at another woman the same way. He grabbed hold of the shower pipe, steadying himself, he guided her other leg as she lifted both to lock her ankles around his waist, he grinned at her, and they were going to have to be careful he mused as steam filled the large cubicle. Pressing their bodies into the hard tiles, he began to pump into her.

"God, I never get tired of hearing you say that" he growled as she circled her arms around his shoulders. She gave him an enthusiastic grin and kissed him fiercely.

"You have no idea… how long I have been picturing us both fucking in this shower" she admitted, feeling the cold tiles against her shoulders as the weight of him pressed against her against the wall with each thrust.

"Stop saying Kinky Things to me, Sugarpuss… I wont be able to last long if you keep talking to me with that filthy mouth…" he pleaded, trailing kisses along her neck.

"It's not that I am horny all the time Logan, you are just so fucking sexy" she moaned.

He had one hand on her ass and the other helping him to balance, bracing himself as she began grinding in time with him, coaxing a loud moan in response. "Compliments and dirty talk are going to get you spanked" he threatened, feeling a spasm begin to start in her body as she began to shake in his arms, he was slow, rhythmic, gentle, nibbling her ear. "I'm going to bury myself between your legs when we get out of this shower" he promised, "tease you with my tongue all over again" he whispered, feeling her shiver. He shifted their position as the water continued to pour over their bodies, the sensation of her surrounding him was exquisite. The strength of what was building was intensifying, he groaned and buried his face against her neck. It was almost too much, feeling her spasm around him, her breasts trembling against his chest, absorbed in the pleasure of her touch. She was breathing faster, made the most delicious sounds — raw, intense, hitting her in the spot that turned her moans into one powerful, orgasm. Her head was still spinning, as the flood of sensation washed over her, a pulsating feeling gripping against his shaft, he felt her body tighten, her thighs, her nails scratching down his back.

"You are mine" he growled possessively as he came, melting inside her, she was still gasping as he captured her mouth with his and groaned in pleasure, loosening his grip on her ass. Doing his best to keep their position as he savoured the feel of her little aftershocks. She became almost limp when it was over, a sated and happy grin all over her face. He shook his head incredulously, hot, sexy, screaming, heart-pumping fun. Before they left this bathroom, he mused, he was going to make her lean against the sink, fuck her from behind standing in front of the mirror as she watched them.


	4. Chapter 4

Veronica Mars felt like her entire body was singing her boyfriend Logan Echolls, son of movie star turned murderer, Aaron Echolls, currently had his face buried between her thighs, his tongue licking against her clitoris and she writhed on the bed sheets, completely at his mercy. Her world was in total darkness, he had blindfolded her using one of his ties and all her other senses were heightened as he took his time in delighting her, surprising her with his raunchy games.

Not that Logan needed any extra help in making things spicy; their sexual chemistry had always been off the charts. She cried out again but couldn't wriggle her hips away from his mouth, his biceps were firmly holding onto her upper legs, pinning her in his embrace. She couldn't escape the sensations started to build, moving over her like waves, she didn't know why she trembled like this, like her whole body would break apart, every ounce of her body felt alive, then it hit and the explosion just forced to her to fall over the edge and feel weightless, clinging to the covers around her, she fisted the sheets and cried out. He laughed in satisfaction and pulled away, she felt him slide a finger inside and started a circular come hither motion and applied pressure, to the most intimate part inside her, and massaging her slowly. She felt him smiling against her stomach as he lowered his head and licked her again, the heat was building up into a small tsunami.

"Oh Gods, Logan!" she swore as fell off the edge and a light-headed feeling rolled over her, the dam burst, and she nearly blacked out. With every vaginal spasm, the waves pounded over her entire body at once and making her completely lose muscle control. Shivering in his arms Logan pulled back and watched her twist the sheets in her hands, her small breasts quivered, he reached up and traced his palm across her chest, her nipple hard from the stimulation. Contractions still pulsating around the fingers he was using to continue teasing her, in a few moments her thighs would go weak, and she would go limp and speechless. It was so beautiful and cute, emotionally it was an incredible ego boost.

"Again?!" Dick Casablanca's, his best friend and roommate complained through the door as he sat on the couch in the living room, penthouse apartment. "Dude! Get a room... In a different Suite!"

"Dick?" she shrieked, bolting upwards and pulling the blindfold off. "Dick?" she repeated, mortified. _How long had he been listening to them?_

"So soon?" Logan pouted as he squeezed her breast. "I had been hoping on a lot more foreplay… but if the lady insists" he joked, as she frowned and reached for the duvet to cover her naked body.

"Hey Ronnie!" Dick called from the other room. "I ordered pizza from room service if you want a slice... guy in reception says that chocolate fountain and marshmallows will be on their way up soon, personally I'm more into strawberries or whatever. There was this one chick in Tijuana loved it when I used a popsicle to.. well you get the idea" he continued as he grabbed the remote for the tv.

"OMG" Veronica mouthed silently as she cringed and buried her blushing face into the pillow. Horrified.

"Hey Logan, did I tell you about that champagne trick?" he continued as Logan quickly bolted from the bed, grabbed his dressing gown, putting it on as he went towards the door.

"Not cool man" he reprimanded as he opened the door, wiping his mouth and stepped into the other room.

"No it's freaking awesome!" Dick corrected. "Body shots taken to a whole new level" he bragged.

"Dick!" he exclaimed, raising an eyebrow as Dick kept flicking through the channel options.

"Oh, hey, no judgement, you guys wanna get all kinky n shit, at least I can feel comfort in knowing you aint been starving you to death in there" he winked "although its great you remember what real food is, I am relieved. I haven't seen you in like three days, we do go to College.. we got this thing called Class?" Dick replied passing Logan an assignment prospectus for their economics course.

"Damn.. I forgot the project proposals were due this week" Logan groaned as he took the file and had a look over the summary, panicked.

"It's cool, I was banging some co-ed from San Diego State last week, she had some of her brothers old papers laying around, he's got like three investment portfolio's in some plastic construction… 3D printing model.. or something, so she gave me a few, stock projections. We can just change the names, or whatever" he told him casually. Logan looked at him in surprise. "How do you think I pass any of my classes?" he laughed, opening a beer.

"Thanks" Logan replied as a polite knock sounded at the front door.

"Room Service" a polite voice called.

"About time" Dick said, springing up onto his feet and greeting the hotel staff in the hall. "Not my pizza" he sighed as the girl rolled in the trolley with the chocolate fountain and assortment of sweets. "Oh you did get strawberries.. cool" Dick said, picking one off the plate. The attendant passed a surprised looked between the two men in the room and shook her head slightly.

"You two enjoy" she smiled, amused.

"Logan?" Veronica called shyly from the bedroom.

"That belongs to them" Dick chided happily, inspecting their server with flirtatious interest, he must have deciding she was hot enough because he suggested that she bring back another one at the end of her shift for the two of them to share. Charmed like most women who spent time around Dick she giggled and gave Logan the receipt.

"I'm not sure my girlfriend would approve" she relented flirtatiously.

"Hey, you can both enjoy it. I'll host, I really wouldn't mind" he smiled. Dick was persistent and followed the pretty brunette to the door, he was a sucker for brunettes.

"That would be really generous of you" she giggled, sliding the signed receipt back into her pocket.

"I believe in helping Love flourish" Dick professed dramatically as he sipped his beer.

"Unless that love was planning a private evening of slap and tickle" Logan muttered below his breath, wheeling the trolley back towards his bedroom.

"Logan?" Veronica repeated coyly.

"On my way, dearest" he said cheerfully as he left Dick to his flirty advances with the waitress.

"You a champion of Love?" the brunette continued as she stepped towards the door.

"Definitely, I will do my part, because you and your girlfriend? Together? That is a beautiful thing…" Dick praised.

"Oh it is.." she purred smiling.

"I'll bet…" Dick agreed.

"I finish at 9pm" she winked.

"That when you get off?" he queried, desperate for details.

"No… that usually happens when I get home" she winked as she opened the door and left, swinging her hips as she walked out.

"Dude…" Dick swore.

"Goodnight Buddy" Logan said smirking at his friend as he pushed the food trolley inside the bedroom. _Dick really was such a simple creature_ he mused.

"Lesbians…" Dick declared drinking his beer. "Now THAT is Hot" he said before going to his own room.

**** I thought it would be fun to add a little cameo from my favourite Casablanca's brother to see how he is coping with all this romance going on at home ****

Thanks for reading, Reviews are appreciated, I am still trying to improve, let me know what works for you, what doesn't.


	5. Chapter 5

(Gabrielle Aplin - Salvation)

Logan checked the time on his phone and decided it was time to start heading to his next class across campus. He should have really looked at the Hearst map when he had selected his courses for the term, most of his involved defying the laws of physics to get there on time, even though he was only enrolled in the minimum. That's what he got for his last-minute enrolment. His academic disregard was most likely due to the lack of parental oversight after his mother's suicide and the arrest of his movie-star father Aaron Echolls, and dealing with a very tough senior year.

He had been too busy trying to clear his name of the murder of Felix Toome's to be too concerned about College applications, and the ankle monitor he had been forced to wear during most of that time, really limited his ability to travel around looking at alternatives. Besides, he smiled to himself, Hearst had the intern programme to Quantico, the very reason a very tenacious petite blond private investigator had chosen this place.

And he was his best self when she looked at him.

He would probably have followed that girl half way across the country had she asked him to. Probably even if she hadn't asked him too as well, he admitted to himself. Something about Veronica Mars had shifted his centre of gravity, and now he knew for certain it was the same for her as well. He hadn't see her much in the last two days, mostly just stolen moments between class and lunch, she was on a peace mission spending time with her dad and trying to get caught up on her classes and he was doing everything in his power to avoid upsetting Keith Mars any more than absolutely necessary. He had a deep mistrust of Logan, not that he could blame him. Son of the infamous Aaron Echolls, the man whose crimes had single-handedly ruined his career as Sheriff, and not forgetting the night his dad had tried to burn Veronica and her father alive when they finally uncovered the truth of it.

Veronica's strong relationship with her father was something Logan envied. Years ago, the entire town had turned its back on Keith Mars for allegedly bungling the high profile murder investigation of Logan's girlfriend, Lilly Kane. He had been sure during his time as Sheriff that Kane family were obstructing justice and creating false timelines, he had be so relentless that the Kane's had leveraged their considerable influence over Neptune's Elite, being one of the largest employers in the area had given them an unsettling amount of power, and they had ousted Keith Mars from office. For the year and half after Abel Koontz false confession, everyone had been convinced Keith Mars had been wrong, but Veronica's loyalty to her father had never wavered, even after Logan had instigated the 09rs in their school to turn Veronica into a social pariah, not even after his investigations had caused Veronica's mother Lianne Mars to abandon them both. It had an intensity that would probably never understand, they were more than father-daughter, they were business partners, best friends. They were real with one another. They were a family. In a world where Logan was now completely alone, he knew how important that connection was.

In the end, Keith had been right, the Kane's had believed the killer to be their son Duncan, Lilly's younger brother, resulting from an episode related to his epilepsy, so they had created a false narrative, false leads and coerced a false confession to save their surviving child. They had all been wrong, Veronica had discovered the truth, evidenced on video tapes found hidden in Lilly's bedroom of her having sex with Logan's father, Aaron Echolls. The finger had even been pointed at Logan, before his dad had attempted to kill Veronica to keep the truth from getting out. Keith Mars had literally crawled through fire to save his daughter that night, and Logan swore he could feel the former sheriff measuring him, weighing him, seeking any similarities to his father, waiting for any red flags to prove he was his father's son. That some evil darkness lurked inside him.

He had been tolerant of Logan that first summer they were together after those very public revelations about Lillys true killer, and the book Keith had released about it. He hadn't criticized his daughters dating choices during the hearing about the Felix murder case, but mostly that was because Keith Mars had not been in a position to do much more than silently condemn the relationship. He had been recovering in Neptune Memorial Hospital from the burns of the fire. Logan knew from first-hand experience the night she had broken up with him for his part in the turf wars between the 09rs and the PCH biker gang, before Veronica had gotten back together with Duncan, how protective and formidable a force Keith Mars could be. He had almost broken Logan's arm that and told him to stay away from his daughter. For such a short man, the years of being in the Police Force and years of wrestling bail jumpers into the backs of cars had toughened him into a man to be respected. He had never had a bond with anyone in his life like the one she shared with her father. He hoped that someday, he could find some common ground with him, since they both shared a love of the same petite blond library assistant.

Logan had eventually been cleared of all suspicion, innocent of all charges, innocent of everything except being a rich slacker party boy desperately in love with one petite private investigator. The Progeny of one Keith Mars. He was trying his hardest to be reformed, he had earned a little goodwill with the older Mars after the night he had brought a drugged and bleeding Veronica home when she had almost been targeted by the Hearst Rapist. He still felt he had to be on his utmost best behaviour at all times. He was trying his best to measure up, to mature, to become the sort of man that Keith Mars would be proud to have dating his daughter. It was hard though, to try to be a better man when you had no example but a dead psychotic cradle robbing murdering bastard… Logan thought as he tried to shake the memories of Aaron Echolls from his mind.

He was always over thinking things when she was AWOL in his day. It was like missing a limb, a vital part of himself. Although, her absence today visit Mac and Wallace Fennel, had provided the perfect opportunity to get some vital items.

He saw his roommate, Dick Casablanca's, son of disgraced investment tycoon, Richard Casablanca's, waiting for him in their usual spot after class.

"Dude… did you check out the size of the ChimmyChangas on that TA?" Dick admired, lost in a daydream. Logan couldn't help but laugh, even after all the chaos his life had been over the last few years, the loss and the drama, the court cases.. Dick Casablanca's had been one of the few constants in his life. Even after the two boys had stopped speaking briefly following the suicide of Cassidy Casablanca's, Dicks younger brother, the mass murderer of Neptune High, Dick had always been his most loyal friend. The two shared a history, an understanding of exactly what it was like when your life became tabloid fodder and your most personal tragedies were plastered all over the internet and paparazzi hiding in bushes or following you around the supermarket. Both of them knew what it was like to have to face the loved ones of your murderous family member's victims. They both had their nightmares, their demons and the trials they endured had forged together the only family either of them had left. Dick Casablanca's was more than just his friend, he was his Brother.

Veronica wasn't his most favourite person, he disliked how she had the power she had to hurt his friend, and it was her investigations which had uncovered Cassidy's direct involvement in the murder of 37 people. He had blown up a school bus and a plane, and even tried to kill both Logan and Veronica on the roof of the very hotel Dick and Logan called Home. But if there was one thing that got Dick through life, it was his pure love of women, beer and surfing. "You hearing me?" he asked.

"I hear you" Logan smiled. "I take it you had no luck with Jackie this morning?" he mused, referring to Dick's fascination of trying to organise a date with the brunette lesbian hospitality staff in the Neptune Grand. He was a bad influence

"Today is the first day of the rest of my life" Dick replied.

"No luck huh?" Logan chuckled.

"Not even an inch" he sighed "That girl is my Everest… and her hot girlfriend, I was on their insta earlier during my computer class… you have to see the legs on this girl."

An unwavering pervert. Consistent. He was always, without reservation, 100% himself, no matter what trouble it got him into. It was part of what he truly appreciated about Dick. It's what would ultimately make him the perfect choice, Logan thought.

"What are you thinking about?" Dick queried.

"Bachelor parties" Logan replied and Dick gave him a confused look.

"I don't think she's a stripper man, but they could probably be glossed up pretty good" he considered.

"That's not what I meant… never mind, it's not time yet" Logan told him, running his hand through his hair. "I'm going to need your help Dick, if I keep it, Veronica will find out.. and I can't risk that just yet" he rambled, taking a deep breath.

"Dude… you trying to hide your kinky toys in my room?" Dick asked disgusted.

"No.. its nothing like that" Logan dismissed, unable to look him the eye.

"Well what's going on man? We talking some grade A Porn here?" Dick continued. "It must be some extreme shit if you are trying to hide it in my room, you never should have shown her that air vents trick I taught you" he scolded.

"Dick! I am not talking about sex toys or porn ok?" Logan interrupted, grabbing him by the shoulders. "I am trying to ask you to be my best man" he told him seriously.

Dick's eyes widened.

"Did you get that? I am asking you to be my best man" Logan repeated.

"You popping the question?" Dick said in shock.

"What you want me to get down on one knee? Come on man, you know you are family to me, you are closer to me than any brother could be, and I am asking for you to help me by keeping this, in the one place I know Veronica Mars would never go" he declared, holding up the small jewellery box.

"That girl climbs through trash for clues" Dick informed him.

"And yet she insists on vaccinations and a hazmat suit to go near your side of the couch, your room, is the one place I know where she would never find this" he explained earnestly.

"Dude, that's a ring" Dick uttered pointing at the small box like it was a cursed object. "You are in COLLEGE, what are you thinking?" he protested. "Did you at least get a pre-nup drawn up?"

"Pre-nup?" Logan said, dejected, this wasn't going well. "Dude, come on, I just asked you to be my best man, are you even going to give me an answer?"

"Will she? You two have been on and off again for years… she broke your heart, broke Duncan's heart and both of you keep yo-yoing back and forth for some more" Dick reasoned. "I've been putting you humpty umpty sad sacks back together again everytime this happens. A ring? That's a lot more permanent than just going for some beers and surfing dude, you have never seen the effects of a divorce man, my folks put each other through hell for years and they weren't anywhere near as volatile as you guys" Dick exclaimed, running his hand through his own hair and looking at the small box being held out to him like it would bite him.

"I know Dick! Getting married, that's kinda the point… permanent" Logan shouted. "That's what I want, no more breaking up, no more on and off, just US, and I want you to help me man, I want you to stand up there and make sure I don't screw this up again."

"You're serious about this?" Dick relented, his voice softening, reaching a hand out for the box to look at the bling. Logan handed it to him and nodded.

"Serious as a heart attack" he sighed.

"You could have at least brought some Bromance, got down on one knee when you ask a guy something like that, bought me a beer, took me to a strip club, a guy likes a bit of fuss you know?" Dick said as he opened the box and looked at the small rose gold engagement ring with a rainbow moonstone setting.

"That a yes?" Logan smiled, relieved, his eyes tearing up.

"Of course dude, I might not always be down with who you get down with, but weddings always equals bridesmaids and I've met her friends, they are Hot" Dick agreed, closing the box. Logan laughed pulled him closer as the two guys hugged it out. Dicks eyes were watery when he pulled away. "Besides, we are family right?"

"Always" Logan replied as the two of them stood and regarded each other.

"Just don't go putting a ring on it until we see how good this thanksgiving dinner is gonna turn out, this is about more than just your commitment, we are gonna have holidays together, I don't want no second rate yams" Dick shrugged.

"Oh… never change man" Logan sighed.

"What? This is a serious matter!" Dick told him.

"Well… I expect we will probably be engaged for a while first" Logan said simply. Putting the ring back into his pocket. "That is IF she says yes" insecurity creeping into his voice.

"IF? Oh come on, I've heard you two… there's no way that girl is turning you down" Dick scoffed, looking slightly annoyed. "So no Vegas? Dammit this Best Man gig is starting to blow already" he complained as they headed back to the car.

"You sure Dick? You get free reign on planning the bachelor party, there's no point putting limits on you, she's a private eye, there's no secrets her sleuthing wouldn't uncover, so go all out" Logan consoled him, and his friend perked right up. "Not to mention, people have these things called engagement parties"

"Free reign?" Dick repeated "All I am hearing is Parties," he said as he climbed shotgun beside him, groaning inwardly Logan started the engine.

"Please don't make me regret this" Logan breathed, driving back towards the Neptune Grand Hotel.


	6. Chapter 6

"Ok, something is REALLY different about you" Mac declared, scrutinizing Veronica like a wayward line of code and pointing a chip in her direction as she twisted some noodles around the plastic fork in her hand, squirming from the microscopic attention of the petite brunettes gaze.

"You mean aside from her ability to answer a phone call or manifest a physical appearance at this Lunch table?" Wallace muttered, tearing his sandwich in half. "I had to find out where you were from Dick Casablanca's… **Dick Casablanca's**!" Wallace scolded her in mock betrayal, the sound of the canteen bustled around them. He gave her that famous Fennel side-eye of disapproval.

 _He should patent that look… sell it off to parents everywhere_.

Last they had touched base before her mysterious 3 day disappearance under the bedsheets with her boyfriend Logan Echolls. She had been investigating a series of thefts in one of Neptune's most prestigious Holistic Spa's. _Shocker… the maid did it._

Veronica had violated one of their most sacred pacts; never disappear without giving the other a heads up. They had come up with this rule after his return from Chicago, the two of them were closer than just best friends, they were practically family, their parents had dated through most of their senior year and Veronica had been secretly more than a little disappointed when it hadn't lasted. In many ways, Wallace was the brother she'd always needed.

 _He was right to be mad at her but that weekend had just been so toe-curling perfect_.

"I was undercover," she blushed. Wallace wrinkled his face in horror and dropped the sandwich back down on his tray.

"Mental images, I do not need, you ladies keep catching up, I am away to see my man Piz, and enjoy this pudding cup in peace" he declared, getting out of his seat and taking his tray with him.

"Oh, the pudding, we had some great fun with chocolate pudding!" Veronica exclaimed.

"AHHHH, that's just _WRONG_ Mars!" Wallace cried out. "You know... that's not what an apology sounds like" he protested shaking his head as he retreated towards the DJ booth where his roommate Piz was currently hosting the lunch time Q&A.

"He was worried, you should have called" Mac murmured as she watched Piz give Wallace an awkward fist bump.

"I accept no responsibility, and I would do it all again" Veronica claimed proudly.

"What is in the bag?" Parker asked laughing, showing curious interest in the small shopping bag beside Veronica's chair.

"My brain?" Veronica retorted, kicking it beneath her seat.

"Oh! Now you have to tell!" Mac said, kicking Veronica's shin playfully beneath the table, her mouth widening in mock surprise as Parker raced from her chair and retrieved the bag.

"No….. no….." Veronica complained, trying to stop her but Parker was already standing safely behind Mac's chair with her stolen treasure.

"Penance!" Mac declared as she pointed a finger at Veronica, who had buried her head into her hands and began blushing again.

"I see you have kindly set aside this time today, to public humiliate me?" she said sardonically, this was really embarrassing.

"This should be good" Parker giggled, putting her hand inside the small grey paper bag and pulled out a small box. Puzzled she flicked her eyes towards Mac, who pursed her lips in bewilderment.

She passed the box to Veronica, who took it from them, and opened it to reveal small folded silvery blue tie. It was for Logan.

"All that secrecy over a tie?" Mac asked her incredulously, tucking a strand of her brown hair behind her ear. She was visibly disappointed, she had been hoping for something juicier.

"A present… I kind of ruined the last one" Veronica explained.

"It's… nice!" Parker told her, handing back the bag and sliding back into her seat.

"Yeah, some man bling!" Mac said, confused.

"You guys ok now?" Parker queried softly, taking off her white sweater. Veronica wasn't used to all this girl talk, her experience of these kinds of friendships was limited to her conversations with Mac and her dead best friend Lilly Kane, gossiping and boy talk, it seemed was a skill she was sorely lacking. Her father Keith Mars could instil teachings of the finer points of lock picking but these this was beyond the realm of his expertise, so Veronica had to work out this part of her friendship with Parker by herself.

"After the Madison thing? Yea.. I think so" she smiled shyly.

"I still think you should make him sweat it out a bit" Mac mused as she started detailing how she would make the boy who was ever dumb enough to let _her_ go and sleep with a hated rival grovel and woo her with bouquets of computer upgrades and expensive vacations.

 _Sweat it out? She had certainly been sweating it out with Logan the last few days._

"I would be expecting a new camera lens, a least!" Parker agreed. "I mean lets not get all _Ross and Rachel_ , you may have been 'on a break' but you still deserve some romance."

"You are into Camera's?" Veronica repeated, raising a questioning eyebrow at the bubbly blond in front of her. Parkers interests consisted of shopping, all things equine and dating, she had never mentioned anything about photography before.

"Well, I mean if I was you" she explained, this was an uneasy unnatural friendship, but Veronica genuinely did like Parker. Mac and her shared a room at Hearst college, and Veronica had been there the night that Mercer, the campus rapist, had attacked a drugged and defenceless Parker. Guilty that she had been so close at the time, unable to stop it from happening, she had made it her mission to find the culprit and bring him to justice. She had succeeded in unveiling the rapist, and it was Parker, who had actually saved Veronica in return as she had been drugged, helpless and trapped by his co-conspirator.

Veronica was private by nature, it came hardwired, an innate talent nurtured by her private investigator father, but Parker was still so open and trusting, the type of girl who belonged in a sorority house or selling spirit cookies, surrounded by other girls like her, but they were both survivors, it bonded them. Usually these kinds of conversations were the sort of thing she would slash her own tires to avoid, tracking down bail jumpers and cracking murder investigations that was something she could do. If she was honest, the gift for Logan was making her nervous, she wasn't used to making these girly gestures, but Logan seemed to really enjoy all the romantic fuss, which was surprising for her, given she was certain all that mushy stuff wasn't in her genetic code.

"Hi Veronica" a sweet shy voice called from behind her, it was Piz. Looking over her shoulder she smiled. "How's the chaos?" he flirted, as he slid into the chair beside Mac.

"I told you I wanted to avoid all this girly nonsense Piz, don't encourage them!" Wallace complained, retreating back to the chair he had thought he had abandoned. "Dolce&Gabana?" he muttered, looking at the small box and handing it back to Veronica, raising an eyebrow, since when did Veronica go shopping?

"Uh.. no chaos" Veronica replied.

"Must be a slow week?" Piz offered, disappointed but giving her his best boyish thousand watt smile.

"I'm guessing we would be elbow deep in our Sleuthing if she had actually been around any of this week" Wallace informed him sarcastically.

"It is rain that grows flowers, Wallace, not thunder" Veronica mockingly in a sage voice.

"I'm just not sure how I feel about this V" Wallace confessed, a quietness settled over the table, and Parker shifted awkwardly as she picked up the small box and placed it back into the bag.

"I don't know, I think it's sweet" she offered handing it back to Veronica..

"Don't raise thy Voice Grasshopper, improve thy argument" Veronica said in her best impression Keith Mars. These kinds of motivational pictures and calendar's littered his office, the car and the multitude of fridge magnets in the Mars home. It was frightening accurate and Wallace couldn't stifle the chuckle quick enough. Grateful the tension had dissipated.

"Did you go somewhere?" Piz asked politely.

"Yes! To get this!" she replied, reaching into her small black rucksack and pulling out a different small box with a birthday bow on top.

Yesterday was Mac's birthday and Veronica had almost forgotten until she had seen Madison Sinclair driving by in her new red convertible on her way back home. Popping the small box in front of Mac. "Happy Birthday!" she cheered, as Wallace also set up a small piece of cake with a candle in it.

A smile quickly spread across Mac's face as she reached for the small box.

"A matching set of socks for my new tie?" she questioned, opening it, she gasped and picked up the shiny new graphics card in her hand. "This has an E175, mod… I have neither the time, nor the crayons to explain how awesome this is, but I could totally hack this!" she squealed excitedly.

"It took me a good two hours to find that one" Veronica explained, she had dragged a former client Max, a computer genius along with her yesterday to pick out something for her super nerdy best friend, Mac was an avid Hacktivist and this was the perfect present for her, she watched as Mac beamed happily and started to explain how to modify a graphics card to accommodate a DJ deck for Piz. Maybe she wasn't so bad at this gift giving thing after all, she mused. It was nice to have all of her friends together in the same place, it was just a shame it was never as easy when Logan was around. She missed him, but he wasn't around today, he was bailing his roommate out of a Vegas related jam. She glanced at Wallace, she knew he disapproved of her idea to give her bad boyfriend another chance, he shared a lot of her father's sentiments about Logan. He was loyal, protective and Veronica loved that about him, she reached out her hand and gave his a squeeze.

"Finding friends with the same mental disorder, Priceless" Wallace laughed wryly, and squeezed hers right back, and just like that, all was forgiven.

"I like you because you join in on my weirdness" said Piz, patting Mac on the back and passing her the small cake, as she blew out the candle.


	7. Chapter 7

_The best way to forget your daily problems was to seek out bigger challenges_ Logan thought as he paddled forwards on his board, the taste of salt in his mouth, the cold water rolled over him, he could see the swell of a good one about to break just ahead of him, he poised himself ready to stand and greet it. Every wave felt different, this was one of the true times Logan knew that he was truly alive; adrenaline tingled in his muscles, the anticipation building. It was very early morning, even Dick hadn't been up for leaving the hotel suite at this ungodly hour, but Logan couldn't shut his mind off, he needed a distraction, a solid 8-foot wave was the perfect answer.

Waking up alone in the morning was really starting to make him cranky, echoes of Veronica's sounds whispered to him in his sleep, her absence was driving him insane.

He kept on paddling even though his arms are starting to feel pain. Finally reaching the line-up. Sitting, waiting, entering a meditative mode, his thoughts primed, focused on one thing – getting that wave. Pouncing he saw the wall build up, it lifted the water under him and his board catching up speed. He would have about a second to stand up before he either crashed down the wave or miss it. Hands around the board, pulling his knee in under his stomach while the board was in an almost vertical position down the wave and jumped up on the board. His back foot hit the board first and then his front foot. Speed, then pure elation. He was surfing. Here is where the magic occurs, this is the moment he lived for when surfing, this is where nature closes its hands around you and for a moment you feel nothing but love for this world, as he landed in the water he went go from thunder and lightning to tranquillity. Everything calmed and his pulse slowly slowed down. The total opposite of his time with Veronica, his girlfriend, she got his heart racing, his blood pumping, she set him on fire in every way possible.

 _Damn it… even out here_ **,** sitting perched on his board beyond the break line catching his breath, looking along the shoreline, his legs dangling in the water memories of her found him _. Was there a single minute of any day she did not cross his mind?_

Logan sighed deeply as he looked at his watch, he would have to head back into the beach soon. His first class started in a few hours, tempting as the thought of spending a few hours in the beautiful sunshine with some beers on the beach was. He was doing his best to be reformed.

He honestly wasn't sure what use it would do, no matter how hard he tried, every interaction with Keith Mars had the same outcome, Logan left a thousand pounds heavier under the weight of the former sheriffs judging stare. He had taken up reading the local Neptune newspaper during his breakfasts, something Logan usually hated to do and catching the evening news to try to stay current with events, tried to cut down his video-gaming to watch some live sports so he could have something more to talk about with his girlfriend's father, but none of his attempts seemed to be thawing the frost wall that went up around the Mars family dinner table when he came to visit. Mr Mars seemed to dislike Logan's affluent background, having spent years on the losing end of trying to maintain law and order in the increasingly class divided Neptune, this probably shouldn't have been too surprising but sometimes, Logan felt like Keith barely gave him a chance.

 _"You've never had to work for anything in your life!"_ whispered the ghosts of Aaron Echolls, his father's angry voice screamed through Logan's memory and he shivered from more than just the cold. Common opinion of Logan was that his life was just frivolous, that he lacked ambition, almost every parent of every girlfriend he had had since junior year hadn't minded, until that is the truth had come out about his dad. The Movie Star Aaron Echolls who had killed Logan's high school girlfriend, Lilly Kane before meeting his own murderous end by an intruder in the hotel suite, just the floor beneath Logan's. A well of emotions threatened to explode from inside him, why was all of this anxiety coming back to him now? It had been Keith and Veronica Mars who had uncovered the truth about his father's crimes. Keith Mars , former disgraced sheriff was the best selling author of the official book on the journey to track down Lillys true killer, and the man who had ultimately caught him. Logan hated his father, he had taken Lilly from him, drove his mother to suicide, and even tried to kill Veronica, and even after all this time, he still was fighting the shadows of the man's impression from behind Keith Mars's stare.

His most recent attempt at bonding with the elder Mars the previous evening now seemed ill-advised in the harsh light of the morning. He had purchased some hire guns and invited both Veronica and her father to the Neptune Target, for a few hours in the shooting range John Casablanca's had taken him to in senior year with his two sons. Veronica wasn't too keen at the time, she was more interested in shooting pictures with her camera than a static target, but Logan had thought it would be great bonding activity to try with Keith, a former sheriff and a former cop for over 26 years, Logan had used it as an opportunity to attempt to get him to build some kind of common ground, let him show off, to teach him some tips and tricks, but on second thoughts, given that the groundwork for their relationship started with Logan's father being a known murderer, proximity to any kind of item which may hurt his daughter was probably the last thing Logan should have included in their plans. He should have just stuck to mini-golf. The more skill Logan had demonstrated the more distrustful and unsettled Keith Mars had become, using the time allotted to school his daughter in the correct posture, and how to avoid the effects of the kick back because of her small frame.

 _What had he been thinking? Stupid, Stupid Logan._ He thought as he dried his hair and sat on the sand to get his breath after the swim back. Logan may have been able to dress smart, act confident and speak politely, but it was becoming more obvious that he was just viewed as unsuitable and lacked the basic qualities that Keith Mars considered a sign of good moral character despite all his efforts to respect all his rules. He could win over their dog, Back-up easily enough, but he didn't know what to do about this situation. Veronica had seemed determined to compartmentalize her life into neat little boxes, and he couldn't shake the insecurity that even his own girlfriend thought that the Logan Box, didn't belong anywhere near the Family Box. That was exactly where he ached to belong.

Watching the father-daughter duo tell each other jokes about the kitchen or laughing around the Mars Investigations office and swapping stories during the movie nights made them escape into their own little world left Logan feeling like an outsider, like he was watching everything he wanted from outside a snow globe. A home, a real home, where people genuinely loved each other, one where they stuck together no matter what. A home where they literally crawled through fire for one another. They spoke a language with one another that Logan just couldn't understand, and he wished they would take the time to teach it to him. Veronica didn't seem to fully appreciate just how special that relationship with her father was. Part of the trouble with being an orphan, is he had no one to go to for advice. 19 years old, and Logan had no one else in his life.

No one cared what happened to him, he had few close ties left after high school, he didn't really let people close to him anymore after his fathers murder, the few times he had opened up to someone during the case at Neptune High when Logan had been investigated for the Murder of Felix Toomes, it had ended up as a headline in a tabloid, only Dick had stayed his truest friend. He knew Veronica loved him but deep down, he missed having a family, even as dysfunctional as the Echolls home had been, his mother had loved him. He missed having someone care about whether he made it home; he wanted one of those people to be Keith Mars. Logan couldn't help but stifle the jealousy he felt when Mac, Wallace and his roommate Piz came by for film study nights and fell into easy conversation with the man and Logan sat awkwardly with his arm wrapped over Veronica's shoulder. He always felt like he was intruding.

 _How could he expect to ask her to spend the rest of her life with him... when he was an out of place corrupting influence?_ Sighing he threw his board back into the back of his car. Why did this bother him so much? He wished he had someone to talk to about it, someone to guide him around the curves of the intricate nature of taming Keith Mars. Maybe he could ask Wallace? But that would most likely result in it getting back to Veronica. The two of them were practically siblings.

Sliding into the front seat he rested his head against the steering wheel _. What was he honestly thinking_? He was 19 years old. He had no career goals, just a very large bank account and a proclivity for attracting the worst kind of luck. Doubts had been building in his head ever since he had given the ring to Dick to hide in his room a few weeks ago. _Would her dad freak out and make Veronica break up with Logan for this?_ More than anything he wished he could stop the record player of worst case scenarios rolling around its greatest hits inside his brain. He much preferred when it repeated memories of her waking him from his sleep in a racy lingerie outfit and taking advantage of him in every way possible.

He had just pulled up to the campus early around 7.40am and collected his books for his polypsy class when his phone chirped in his pocket. Pulling it out he glanced at the message.

 **Morning handsome ;) See you for coffee? V.**

His heart flipped, something inside him did a little happy dance and he grin lit up his entire face, the dark clouds rolling around his head began to subside as he imagined her hair all ruffled, curled up in her bed. He missed that sight of her laying on her stomach, arm curled beneath her pillow, sleeping with that unconscious content smile on her lips, she was so unguarded, so perfect in those moments, her hands reaching for his warmth if he got too far away. Their make-up session had been a sample of everything in Logan's life he hadn't been sure he was missing. He wanted her, he wanted a life with her, he wanted Thanksgiving and Christmas and bringing her back breakfast as she lay sleeping waiting him when he got back from mornings like this. _Keith Mars be damned_ , overprotective father or not, Logan wasn't going to let the uncertainty he was feeling to get to him.

He was in love with Veronica. Had always been in love with Veronica, he knew he always would be, he wanted stability with her, he wanted her to become his family, he wanted her by his side, he wanted to make her happy for the rest of her life.

He dialled her number.

"Hey! I am just up, did you get my message?" she asked, her voice was still sleepy sounding.

"Yea, that's why I called, you want me to swing by, take you out to breakfast then drive you to class?" he offered, she didn't have to know he was already at campus.

"uh.. I think dad's already on it" she informed him, pulling her t shirt on over her head.

"oh.." why shouldn't he be surprised, he forgot sometimes that people who didn't have to wait on room service starting times could just walk into their kitchen and make food for each other. "well uh.. call me when you get out of class and we can arrange-" he began, trying to mask the disappointment in his voice.

"Or you could come by, bagels or toast?" she interjected.

"I-I'm not sure if.. that's a good…" he replied, not quite sure he was up to facing the exposure of the Mars Scrutiny again so soon in 12 hour period.

"DAD! Logan's coming for Breakfast!" Veronica interrupted as she called out to her father in the kitchen. "Now you have to come" she teased.

He really wished she hadn't done that.

"Need me to bring anything?" Logan replied.

"Orange juice?" Veronica suggested before calling out to her dad to get extra bacon from the fridge.

"I'll see you soon" Logan sighed.

 _Wonderful, a side of eggs and some personal criticism to start off his day._


	8. Chapter 8

"Dude, I figured it out.." Dick announced as he sat down in the empty chair beside Logan.

"The square root of pi? Or that the Pi is mathematical problem and not an actual desert?" Logan replied wearily as he doodled absently on his notebook.

"No, how to win over the Mars dude, you should break up with Veronica, he would totally be ok with your existence in the universe then" Dick offered. Logan frowned and picked up his coffee and started to scroll through the list of games on the console.

"Not helping Dick, you trying to live up to your name today?" Logan informed his best friend and roommate as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Not at all, you asked my advice man, that is my advice, hells you can even give her the ring as a gesture of bygones. I send chicks jewellery all the time, they love it" Dick insisted, his voice was matter of fact. Logan had known this would probably happen, his girlfriend Veronica wasn't his best friends favourite person. Starting mostly back in high school after Veronica had destroyed his surf board under the wheels her craptastic car. Dick Casablanca's had never quite forgiven her for that one, but then his younger brother Beaver had turned out to be a homicidal mass murdering rapist who had tried to kill Veronica to keep her from revealing his secrets so Dick had learned to let it slide.

 _The wedding speeches from this if she ever said yes would be Epic…_ Logan thought bitterly, it was a good thing both of them had rather small families because honestly, that whole "How did you two meet?" question could be rather… awkward.

"Serious though Lowgs, you got the ring, she loves you, you guys have that whole star-crossed forbidden love crap, her dad can't get in the way of that" Dick told him.

"You just told me you don't think we belong together" Logan reminded him, his voice was raw.

"I don't think you should be driving yourself nuts over trying to tame Martian's" Dick replied simply. "I think you should live your life and surf the world with me dude, but if your heart is set… I will be here for you!"

"Just can't seem to get through to him, Dick" Logan confessed throwing down the controller on the table.

"The plan didn't go well huh?" Dick queried sympathetically, Logan shook his head and stared into the bottom of his mug. This was part of the reason he disliked Veronica, she had the ability to reduce his best friend to this shell of himself, and she didn't even have to be around to do it. It was like whatever wires in his friends soul that made him feel alive and worthy had been re-written from the moment he had first started dating her. Lilly's death had been hard to watch, even when Dick hadn't been sure entirely of Logan's innocence that day she was killed and he had made his brother Cassidy swear that they would keep his alibi, he had known his friend would never have hurt Lilly Kane. Logan was pretty much all in when he fell in love. Hook line and sinker. He watched as Logan buried his head into his hands, this proposal was really taking it toll and he really wanted to give Keith and Veronica Mars a piece of his mind. Logan was the best person he knew, in the end, it was Logan who had been there for him after Cassidy's death, not his dad, not his mother. Logan, and he wanted to be there for him and if he wanted Veronica… well Dick was just going to have to help him hatch a plan to soften the old Martian's heart.

"Worst night of my life… theres no way he is going to say I have his blessing" Logan sighed.

"Well, if you had done it last night, I wouldn't have recommended it, the guy had a fire arm" Dick joked.

"He'd at least have put me out of my misery" he retorted.

"So where is your lady love tonight?" Dick asked him looking at the time on his cell phone.

"I think she was going to be going to a movie with Mac and Piz" Logan sighed, getting up from his seat and putting the mug beside the espresso machine.

KNOCK KNOCK

"You expecting someone?" Logan said, puzzled as he reached for the door. Dick shook his head and smiled, he knew it was Veronica. Getting up from his seat he reached for his jacket to collect his car keys, he was going to go out to the movies with Mac instead. He had seen her wandering across campus earlier and invited her over for some lunch, suggested movie night so he could give Veronica and Logan some alone time.

Logan opened the door cautiously and saw Veronica standing in the corridor with a brown bag of something in her arms.

"Hey Gorgeous" she smiled and stepped inside, kissing him on the cheek as she entered.

"Hey Ronnie, Mac downstairs?" Dick asked as he gave Veronica a small nod.

"Yea" she smiled as Dick headed towards the door.

"What's going on?" Logan asked, feeling a confused. _Since when did Dick and Mac spend time together?_

"We need to talk" Veronica replied ominously as Dick patted Logan on the back and headed out the door, she sat down on the sofa to face him, patting the spot beside her.

 _What had Dick told her?_ Logan panicked. _No No No… He had just gotten her back…_

"I'll be back in a few hours" Dick told him and darted out the door.

"What is going on Veronica?" he swallowed, his voice careful, cautious.

"That's exactly why I'm here" Veronica told him "I know Logan" she continued.

 _Oh crap…. He was going to kill Dick… was she here to end things?_

"You know?" he repeated, his palms sweating he wiped them on his jeans.

"I know that you have been over-thinking, moping around, working yourself up. The last time you did that… you broke up with me and I am not going through that again" Veronica declared. Opening the bag and pulling out a tub of ice-cream, she held a spoon out towards him. Now he really was confused, relieved and just damn right bewildered.

"Ice-cream?" he questioned, his honey brown eyes never leaving hers _. She wasn't breaking up with him… but what did this mean? How much did she know?_

"You seem to be under the impression that I am not crazy about you Logan Echolls, talk to me Logan, whatever your doubts you are having…" she pleaded. "Let's drown them in ice-cream kisses and let me reassure you that you are exactly what I want… I hate seeing you this way. Just tell me what I need to do to make it better…" she implored, her blue eyes insistent.

"Veronica I-" he began as he took the spoon from her and sat down beside her.

"Don't deny it, I've been watching you the last few weeks and you get this… expression sometimes when my dad talks to Piz and Wallace, and you get kinda far away, and I just need to know where you go" she told him, her voice desperate as she reached for his hand. "Because wherever it is, you don't belong there, you belong right here with me. I love you Logan, and you are enough and I don't want you to ever think anything less" she answered, as he reached his hands to cup her face.

"I love you" he whispered, his eyes began to tear up.

"I know you do" she smiled softly as he pulled her closer to him and kissed her. "So are we ok?" she asked as she pulled him closer to her.

"Yeah, yeah we are" he nodded.

"We need to communicate better, these red flag moments.. I don't like them, I hate that I might be making you feel insecure or unwanted Logan… I just wanna make you happy" she whispered.

 _So do I, Veronica… I wanna make you happy for the rest of your life_ he thought, his heart swelled with love for her.

"You do Veronica" he kissed her again. "You have no idea how happy you make me…" he breathed his hands reaching for her shoulders.

"So tell me what's been on your mind" Veronica asked him, handing him a spoon and curling up in his lap with the ice-cream in her hand.

"I just want your dad to like me… I care about you so much, and he's important to you.. I just don't know what I keep doing wrong" Logan confessed, the sound of heartbreak in his voice made her ache for him.

"He does like you Logan, things between us… they are complicated.. theres so much history and-" Veronica began.

"and hes worried I'll become my dad" Logan interrupted, the worry causing the tears welling in his eyes to begin to fall.

"No!" she shook her head vehemently "he doesn't think that… hes sorry he couldn't save your Mom.. I think he feels guilty.. that it took us so long to get to the truth, he thinks if he had gotten to the truth sooner, she wouldn't have jumped" Veronica explained softly.

"But that's not his fault.. he didn't know… nobody did… who knew my dad could actually be that good an actor huh?" he sobbed.

"It's like I said, we all have so much history… we just got to go easier on each other.. make more of an effort, I know you have been trying… I'll talk to him.. because you aren't going anywhere" she comforted him.

"I don't want to come between you and your dad…" his voice was small, lost.

"And I won't let him come between you and me" she responded, a stubborn look flashed through her blue eyes, like she would go to war. He stared at her in wonder, the fierceness in her voice, she straddled his hips and pulled him as close to her as possible without them being joined. "You are mine…" she promised, kissing him.

 _And he would always be hers._

The doubts and the black clouds that had been tormenting him for the last few weeks started to subside, Keith Mars didn't hate him? Keith felt guilty about Logan's mothers death?

He threw his arms around her waist and kissed her hungrily, relief flooding through him, and desire. Veronica's love and admiration for her father was legendary, there was no one in her life she looked up to and emulated more than her dad, and she was willing to defy him to be with Logan. It was a heady fact. She truly loved him. He kissed along her neck and coaxed a sigh from her, her fingers in his hair.

"Logan?" she asked her tone was flirty.

"I'm reassured, Bobcat, just.. don't make me stop…" he rasped "I am finding all this making out very comforting" curling his hands beneath her t shirt to caress her skin.

"I was going to suggest we move this to the bedroom…" she told him playfully as he nibbled her ear. _God it drove her wild when he kissed that spot on her neck._ He pulled closer and she felt him stiff and eager against her pelvis. His touch was so addictive. She would move heaven and earth to be with him, and that knowledge both invigorated and terrified her.

"Thank you for coming here" he said soberly, his honey brown eyes boring into her soul.. he ran his hand along her upper thigh. "I needed this" he admitted.

"I wish you hadn't, it pains me to think you felt that way.. even for a second" she confessed as she kissed him, her arms wrapped around his neck.

"If I've done anything right in my life Mars, it was the day I gave my heart to you" he told her.

"Loving you is like breathing Logan.. how can I stop?" his face lit up and she hugged him to her, thankful that whatever had been weighing him down, seemed to have been chased away.

"Don't ever start digging into that…" he warned, his hands gripping her hips, his eyes widened.

"So… my dad is on a stake out tonight…." Veronica explained, guiding his left hand to her breast, a mischievous glint in her eye, biting her lower lip.

He could wake up with her tomorrow.


	9. Chapter 9

Veronica felt Logan bite gently into her shoulder as she lay on her stomach propped over a pillow on his bed, she tucked her arm up behind her and ran her fingers through his hair, she couldn't touch much of him from this position, he lay on top of her, towering behind her, one hand cupping her breast, the other was playing with her, rubbing her clitoris as he thrust into her, he felt so much larger in this position, which she hadn't thought would be possible. She moaned again as he increased the hip thrusting motion in time with her movements against his palm.

"Oh God Veronica…" he gasped as he felt her start to spasm around him, he curl his free hand away from her breast to lock fingers with her, hugging her closer to him. "Again?" he rasped playfully as she tried to look over her shoulder at him, nodding wordlessly, sweat between their bodies as her blond hair fell against the mattress the need for her to touch him was driving her wild, she couldn't curl herself around him, couldn't devour him with her kisses or taste him from here. She was completely at his mercy, but he was careful with her, took his time pleasuring her as he took leisurely deep thrusts. She had been teasing him with her hands while he was curled up spooning her for almost 40 minutes before he decided it was time to relent and give her what she wanted. The woman was insatiable, filthy minded and he loved every second of it.

Arching her back more he was able to get greater the depth and he relished the sight of her pinned beneath him moaning softly, the smell of her skin, she was so wet and eager. Damn she aroused him, even the trust implied when she let him take her like this made him feel deeply connected to her. He marvelled at how different things had been a month earlier, he thought she would never speak to him again. He loved this position, nestled between her milky thighs, her body pulled against him, the heat of her surrounding him, being with her was a natural high and it was addictive.

He knew even after all the sex they were having this morning, he would be replaying the feel of her over and over and he would be hot and horny by the time he saw her later. She grasped their intertwined fingers and pulled his hand closer to her face and kissed his knuckle's. He kissed the back of her neck, the sensations of her clenching him, gripping him, warm, wet and smooth, clamping down on him as he felt her quivering beneath him, lost in bliss. He felt so protective of her, and at ease having her in the safest place he knew, wrapped up in his arms, it as a mixture of empowerment and love. Loving her felt like his heart had left his body and was just walking around, where anyone can easily hurt it. He knew it drove her nuts that he was possessive sometimes, a cultural thing that dated back to his cave-man ancestors but with her petite body cradled against his, he certainly knew where it came from.

Veronica could feel the weight of his stare, looks of appreciation, fascination, it created a sense of playful tension and excitement, simultaneously telling her all of his most intimate thoughts without saying a word. He was always looking at her, always undressing her with his eyes, side by side on the train or in the car, catch glimpses of how often he turned to face her. These small stares told her how much he enjoyed her presence; she missed him like she was missing a limb when he wasn't around. She smiled at him and giggled a little.

"What?" he queried, slowing his hand against her to see what was different.

"You belong to me Echolls" she smiled and "You make me feel whole, complete, like nothing else in this world matters as long as I have you" she confessed, a few moments later she felt him tremble above her, he orgasmed, a soft growl against her ear and kissed the side of her forehead. He panted and kissed her cheek, spent, tracing a hand down the curve of her body.

"Satisfied?" he smirked, she knew how over the edge hearing things like that made him.

"Always" she smiled as he placed his hand on her hip and she felt him pull away from her, she turned to cup his face and kiss him.

"I'm gonna need a minute Bobkat" Logan smiled, sweat beading along his forehead.

"No complaints here" Veronica giggled as he lay onto his back and she curled up against him, her head on his chest, her breath was slowly getting back to normal, his heart was still racing. "Why does it drive you crazy when I say that?" she asked, tracing her hand down his abdomen.

"Because I'm needy?" he teased playfully, his brown eyes lit up in amusement while he gave her that smile that made her heart skip a beat.

"Logan…" she scolded, frowning slightly.

"I guess, it's because I like hearing you say it, because its exactly how I feel about you.. and I like it when we are both on the same page… it just makes me feel very close to you" he explained, smoothing a blond strand of hair from her face. "Plus your voice sounds really sexy when you try and say my name and I'm buried deep inside you" he teased.

"You like the way everything sounds when you are inside me" she mused.

"Especially room service!" he exclaimed, he was starving.

"Pancakes and blueberries?" Veronica suggested, twisting to reach for the phone.

"You just wanna lick syrup off me again don't you?" he teased, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her close.

"Only if you are up for a joint shower?" she proposed, grinning as he kissed her shoulder.

"You trying to make me skip class?" he scolded, inhaling the scent of her.

"Which one is it today?" she asked him.

"Sociology… and I think there's maybe a test" he replied, slightly disappointed.

"Pity, I would rather spend the day with you naked" she pouted.

"You keep pouting at me like that I just might… but trying to be reformed remember?" he offered, his voice was warm against her ear.

"And yet you make this good girl go bad" she sang in a really silly voice, making him laugh.

"Breakfast, woman…" he told her, reaching for the phone.

Veronica left the bed to go to the bathroom to freshen up while Logan ordered them some breakfast, he heard her brush her teeth and slipped into his boxers, he wandered into the living area of the apartment to get his cell phone. He was startled by a movement behind him, turning his jaw fell open in surprise to see a very dishevelled, groggy and visibly hungover Mac carrying her black shoes in her hands as she was tip-toeing as she closed the door to Dick's bedroom. Locking eyes with Logan she finished pulling her t shirt on.

"Say NOTHING!" she growled at him, pointing at him as she grabbed her jacket from over the edge of the couch and headed towards the door.

"Hey—no judgment!" he said, putting his hands up in surrender.

Veronica peered her head out of the bedroom and gave him a puzzled look, she hadn't seen Mac.

"Well this just got complicated!" he mused.

"Dude, coffee?" Dick called out sleepily from his bedroom as Logan picked up the room service menu and handed it to Veronica.


	10. Chapter 10

"There are not enough showers in the world to make last night right!" Mac complained as she stood in line at the food court beside her roommate and her best friend. Dick Casablanca's was the epitome of everything that Mac loathed ad Veronica was still in shock, this was the last thing she ever would have expected. She hadn't stuck around long after room service had brought her and Logan breakfast and Dick hadn't seemed like anything out of the usual had happened, he had been propped up in his shorts and t-shirt eating a bowl of cheerio's watching the news as she had left that morning.

"So you had fun together… it's not like you have to arrange for a dowry" Parker offered. Of course this would seem like no big deal to her Veronica thought. Not only was casual sexual encounters completely ok in the Parker's Guide to Life but she had no understanding of the weight of the history between Mac and Dick. No idea of the trauma Mac had suffered at the hands of her deceased boyfriend Cassidy Casablanca's, Dick's younger brother.

"I don't think this is exactly covered in the 17 self-help guide!" Mac protested. "I have a boyfriend… a very cute, kind to animal's boyfriend, and he's sweet and he adores me… and I end up in bed with DICK FRICKING CASABLANCA'S?" Mac shrieked in a low whisper.

"I still have no idea… how did this happen?" Veronica questioned her as she picked up a plastic tray and offered one to Mac.

"I'm not sure.. we went to that movie with Wallace and Piz and those guys from the basketball team that go to the fraternity Dick is in, and then we went for a few beers in the campus SU, Neptune Well.. anyways, the night goes on and Wallace is trying to get with this girl from Beta Pi? So before I know it" Mac explained, speaking way too fast. "It's just me and Dick sitting outside and he starts opening up to me about his dad, and Beaver.. So then I really started drinking… because… how do ya deal? So he's crying because it's like I'm the only one who understands how Beaver could really be sweet.. and how he's sorry, so I get us a cab, but he is way too drunk to be left by himself.. I was only going to leave him home.. then we get outside the door.. And he's kissing me and….." she rambled as her face went bright red at the memory. Mortified she buried her face in her hands again.

"It was a mistake… we all make mistakes" Parker comforted her, as she handed Mac a milkshake from the fridge.

"I don't think I could eat anything today.. I wanna throw up" Mac replied, rejecting the offer. Veronica took it instead. "What am I going to do?" she asked.

"Take the morning after pill?" Parker suggested.

"I have to go to the clinic…" Mac declared, her eyes panicked. "The Neptune free clinic, at lunch time… We weren't safe!" she was pacing around them in circles.

"Did you enjoy it?" Veronica asked, as she picked up a small salad from the fridge and a small vegetarian lasagne for Mac. Locking eyes with her friend, she saw the horror fill Mac's face. She had.

"What does that even mean?" Mac exclaimed.

"I think it means did you have a good time?" Parker repeated.

"It wasn't… terrible… for a man-whore, he's actually pretty good at that… but that is beyond the point!" Mac told them both.

"I don't think you have to worry… Dick is pretty much, Dick" Veronica comforted as she moved up the line and handed her card to the cashier. The woman raised her eye-brow and gave Veronica a disapproving glare. "It's his name.. not his appendage" she muttered.

"I just feel so dirty…" Mac explained, ignoring the woman in front of them.

"At least you don't have to worry about him calling you?" Parker offered.

Veronica wasn't sure if that was comforting or not. Dick would never call any girl after something like that, no girl except maybe Madison Sinclair, the girl whom Mac had been switched with at birth, the connection must have registered with Mac about the same time that it occurred to Veronica because Mac suddenly buried her hands in her hair again.

"I just slept with Madison's ex-boyfriend… as if our lives don't overlap enough?!" Mac cried. Veronica slid into an empty seat and the other two girls followed her. Parker had her usual admiring glance towards the Radio DJ booth where Piz was chatting away on the microphone with his two guest stars, a lively debate on the funding for female vs male sports equipment in the Hearst University. The memory of Dick writhing on top of her as they had clawed each other's clothes off made her cheeks red with embarrassment, Mac took the small piece of lasagne that Veronica offered and started to play with it sullenly.

She wasn't sure what bothered her more, that she had had sex with Dick Casablanca's.. the most playboy fraternity of all the fraternity brothers on campus.. that he was her dead boyfriends older brother… that he had tormented her in high school or that she had enjoyed more than any other guy she had ever been with? Her phone chirped, it was her boyfriend again. _What was she going to do?_

"One step at a time" Veronica consoled her. "We can call over to the Clinic after class"

"Yea, I need to pick up some free condoms" Parker agreed nonchalantly.

"Just please nobody mention this ever again" Mac begged.

Veronica made a locking and throwing away the key motion and smiled sympathetically with her petite brunette friend. She looked across the food court to see Logan entering in from the far side with some of his classmates from Sociology, Wallace was with him, they glanced at each other and he gave her a sweet smile, waving. Wallace noticed the little exchange and shook his head.

"You two finished with your eye-sex yet?" Parker interrupted, a little impatient.

"Huh?" Veronica asked, bringing her focus back to the table.

"Poetry reading and craft class on Thursday, you in?" Parker repeated, her blue eyes searching her companions face.

"Yea, sounds good" Veronica smiled.

"I don't know.. an acid bath and some brain bleaching?" Mac muttered as she sulked. Logan approached the table, and Wallace followed close behind.

"Ladies, how are you?" Wallace called out as he set his burger down at the table and pulled a chair from the empty table behind them.

"Hey" Logan smiled as he slid into the seat beside Veronica.

"Hey" she smiled back as he kissed her cheek.

"Not a word!" Mac warned, her eyes flashing angrily at Logan as they darted around the room encase Dick was there.

"He's at class" he chuckled.

"I am feeling a little out of the loop here" Wallace interrupted, staring at the group and sensing the tension.

"Mac and Dick hooked up last night" Parker gossiped.

"Sure… let the whole world know!" Mac complained.

"Dick… as in Dick Casablanca's?" he looked at her incredulously. "The same Dick Casablanca's from Neptune High?"

"I am going to the one place I know I don't have to worry about talking or thinking about this anymore… computer lab" Mac said as she left her seat. Veronica wasn't sure if she should follow, this was really affecting Mac.

"Call me later" Veronica told her, the two of them exchanged a look, she gave her a small smile.

"Yeah, sure" Mac said as she left.

"Do I even wanna know?" Wallace queried, giving Veronica a pointed stare.

"Probably not" she smiled, as she intertwined her fingers with Logan's and took a sip of her milkshake.

"I caught her sneaking out of his room this morning" Logan explained.

"Damn… that I did not see coming" he replied as he took a bit of his burger. _Had all the women in his life gone crazy?_

He glanced at Parker looking dreamily at the DJ booth, at least this one was straight forward, even if she have the hots for Piz.

"Well, I'm glad for her. She deserves more fun in her life" Parker declared, flipping her hair over her shoulder and taking a bite of chocolate cake.

"Did Dick mention anything this morning after I left?" Veronica questioned softly, wrapping Logan's arm around her.

"He was singing in the shower" Logan informed her "but I am not sure what that means."

"It means, if he harasses or hurts my friend, he and I will be having a conversation" Wallace told Logan pointedly. Logan raised an eyebrow and Veronica visibly stiffened.

"Dick's a good guy.. if she says back off, he won't bother her" Logan reassured him.

"Hey Guys" Piz said, finishing his set he was coming to join them, he glanced at the happy couple awkwardly, and gave Veronica a shy smile. _Damn his life was messy_ Wallace thought.

"Hey Wallace" Amira, a petite Indian student purred as she and her roommate wandered into the food court.

"Hey Amira" he smiled, she had been helping him with some calculations for his plane in return for some heavy lifting and favours in her dorm room. Didn't hurt that she was gorgeous.

"Friend of yours?" Parker flirted, _God this girl was like cupid on steroids,_ Veronica thought.

"We met last week" he explained.

"Isnt that the girl we were talking to last night?" Piz asked.

"Yea" Wallace smiled.

"So she's the reason you didn't come home" he laughed, before he caught Parker staring at him again.

"Was everyone getting some but me last night?" Parker sulked.


	11. Chapter 11

Dick paced around the living room area in his Neptune Grand hotel suite, he had a donut in one hand and his cell phone in the other. He was lost deep in thought.

"You ok there buddy?" Logan asked as he finished his chapter.

"Yeah dude, just confused" he confessed.

"Must be Tuesday" Logan joked.

"How do you know when a chick likes you?" Dick asked. _Oh no…_

"There a particular chick you got in mind?" Logan queried carefully, bracing himself for a difficult conversation about Mac.

"Jackie is gay right?" Dick asked, referring to the brunette hospitality staff that had started in the hotel the last few months.

"Last time I checked" Logan confirmed.

"Then why did we end up in bed last night?" Dick pondered.

"Last night?" Logan asked in surprise, Mac hadn't mentioned anything about… well, another girl being in the room as well.

"Yeah, I woke up this morning, I could tell I'd had an awesome session but.. the covers were all messed up and there was no one there, then I got up and Jackie was here, all flirty like normal witht the room service, asking me if I'd had a good time last night… its kind of a blur, but then she disappeared and I haven't heard from her since" Dick explained, grabbing a beer from the mini-fridge in the room. "Just wondering, how soon is too soon to offer up a booty call?"

Logan stared at his friend in awkward silence, Dick didn't remember.

"Dick… you weren't with Jackie last night" Logan began slowly, his tone careful.

"Then who did I bone?" Dick asked, confused. Landmine.

 _How was he supposed to explain this? Why did he have to be the one to explain this?_

"How much do you remember anything from last night?" Logan enquired.

"Suck ass movie. Drinks.. and getting some GOOD with a smoking hot brunette chick" Dick explained.

"You were with Mac" Logan declared.

"Yea, for the movie and the drinks and then… " Dick's voice trailed off as his eyes widened and something flickered through his mind. "Dude! No DUDE!" Dick exclaimed.

Logan raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips, nodding slowly in confirmation. Dick swallowed his beer in long panicked gulps.

"But she hates me" he declared.

"She wasn't thrilled when I saw her sneaking out this morning" Logan continued.

"She did the sneak out?" Dick repeated slowly and Logan nodded again. "Beaver's Mac?" Dick asked again, the expression on his face was unreadable. _He must be thinking about his little brother,_ Logan realized.

"Best friend of my girlfriend, went to Neptune High, Computer Major, Brunette Punk and Parkers roommate… Mac" Logan confirmed.

"She hates me dude…" he continued, his blond hair framed the frowns in his forehead.

"I don't know what happened between you two Dick.. I was with Veronica" Logan explained.

"Tunnel buddies with my brother?" he continued, the horror of what that encounter meant was starting to dawn onto Dick.

"Dude, she said you guys were pretty wasted" Logan comforted him, he couldn't imagine the kinds of thoughts that were going through his friends head right now.

"Hell yes we were… she took advantage of me" he protested.

"Yeah… she thought you might say that, so she sent something over" Logan explained, reaching onto the shelf near the coffee machine to retrieve a small disk.

"What's that?" Dick asked.

"She got Veronica to get the footage of you guys coming back to the suite last night" he added.

"She filmed us?" Dick asked in surprise.

"No… it's the elevator footage" Logan grimaced.

Dick took the disk and placed it into the television DVD player, it was static for a second, then it showed a few minutes of both of them standing in the elevator, staring at each other, Dick reaching over and kissing Mac sweetly on the cheek. "Thanks for taking me home" he slurred.

"No problem.. just want to make sure you get home safe" Mac said, patting him supportively on the shoulder.

"You are so cool…" Dick said. "And your hot… in this whole Evanescence kinda way" he continued.

"And you aren't a total douchebag… I had fun" she nodded, her hand resting on his shoulder.

Logan studied Dick's face as he watched the drama unfolding before him, Mac kissed him back shyly. Then Dick Kissed her back more eagerly and they stayed like that for a few moments, pulling back long enough to stare into each other's eyes…a few more moments passed before both of them leapt hungrily into each other's arms and started to remove their clothes half way up the elevator, stumbling drunkenly mauling each other back to the hotel suite.

"Dude… I don't remember any of this" Dick explained.

"Then, hopefully it isn't a big deal?" Logan told him.

"Is that all there is?" Dick asked.

"Yeah, just that one video.." Logan confirmed, as he passed Dick another beer from the fridge.

"Dude… I had sex with Mac" Dick told him.

"Yeah, we kinda figured that out" Logan said sarcastically as he opened up his own beer and sat down on the couch, regarding his friend carefully.

"She has perfect toes" Dick continued, taking the beer and opening it.

"What?" Logan asked incredulously, his eyebrows shot up and he nearly spat his beer out.

"She has perfect toes… from what I do remember last night.. I remember, smoking legs and these great perfect toes" Dick confessed.

"That a thing of yours?" Logan continued. "You have a thing for feet?"

"Not Feet Dude, I am talking about toes" Dick repeated, lost in a memory.

"She has a boyfriend man" Logan lamented. "That animal rights guy Bronson?"

"Didn't stop her.." Dick joked and Logan gave him a serious stare.

"Just… tread careful on this one buddy.. there's a lot of history between you two… it could get ugly" Logan cautioned.

"Dude… you said it, chick has a boyfriend.. chick is full of baggage" Dick dismissed. "Totally uncool to think I want a complicated Life man.. I leave that shit to you" he informed him, before putting his cell phone back into his pocket. "But hey—if she wants a booty call.. she knows my digits… so she can get my digits" Dick continued and made a spirit finger motion with his hands before retreating into his bedroom.. doing his best pervy impression to hide the disappointment on his face.


	12. Chapter 12

Dick lay sprawled on the floor of the computer lab processor room with his trousers pulled halfway down his legs panting and running a hand through his dishevelled blond hair.

"We were just totally sober just now.." he commented as he looked up at Mac who was pulling back on her own jeans hurriedly.

"Don't remind me…" she scolded, her cheeks were flushed and her dark lipstick was smudged from their kisses.

"This is like the third time we've done this now…" he continued as he pulled up his own trousers and started to fasten his button.

"Uh huh…" she said, searching the floor frantically for her bra.

"Like… in a week" he repeated.

"Have you seen my other shoe?" she asked as she picked up her bra and stuffed it into her jacket pocket.

"I mean it's cool… but if we are going to keep doing this.. we could at least go someplace that doesn't have such cold ass tiles" he suggested as he looked at the cold floor and handed her the black converse trainer.

"That would imply that this had been planned… which it wasn't.." she dismissed, pulling her shoe on and frowning.

"You texted me.." he said, bewildered.

"Yeah.. well…" she muttered dismissively, trying to see if it was still clear to leave.

"You said you were going to fuck my brains out" he said as he opened up his flip phone and showed her the text.

"I know what it says.. I wrote it" Mac replied as she looked despairingly at Dick Casablanca's, the college frat boy she had just spent the last half hour screwing in the server room of her computer lab. It had been exactly two weeks since she had gotten drunk with him at the movies and they had ended up in bed together. She hadn't been able to resist going back for more ever since. She had just broken up with her adorable animal rights activist Bronson about three days ago, and she had been sneaking around at almost every opportunity to have wild sex with Dick whenever they had the chance.

He was her complete opposite. He was a party mad frat boy who sailed his way through college on his looks and his charm and his parents money. His entire life had the consistency of a CollegeHumor video, he took nothing seriously unless it involved a surfboard or playing beer pong. He had no ambition… and yet he was like catnip.

Cindy "Mac" MacKenzie prided herself on being a woman of substance, of breaking the mould, she was a tech genius, a self-confessed nerd and ambitious. Bronson had fit all of her goals, he made her a fitter, more challenging, caring version of herself… but he was like eating popcorn with no toffee. Dick was like firecrackers on her tongue. It was a chemistry she hadn't ever expected.

"Look we both know what this is…" she told him emphatically.

"You click your fingers, I come a running and you rip my clothes off?" he suggested.

"Exactly.. and then you go away and we don't talk about this… to anyone!" she warned.

"Yeah.. but if you came over to my place.. we could go a couple of rounds.." he tempted.

The thought of being able to take their time, of being able to go multiple rounds and really get creative was almost too much, she had to shake her head to interrupt the dirty thoughts forming.

He knew she would never go for it, Veronica and Logan were practically living together lately at the Penthouse in the Neptune Grand where he shared with his best friend, and her dorm room was out of the question because of her very gossipy roommate Parker. Not that Parker would disagree with her "embracing the college experience" but it was embarrassing… she had made such a fuss about her vehement dislike of Dick Casablanca's and everything he stood for. For Gods sakes, he was Madison Sinclairs ex-boyfriend.. the girl who she had been switched at birth with…

Not to mention he was the older brother of her dead ex-boyfriend Cassidy Casablanca's… the boy who had broken her heart and killed 37 people.

"Not going to happen… but that doesn't mean we couldn't get a room someplace" she said finally pursing her lips.

"Alright.. ya little minx!" he smiled as he pulled on his blue shirt.

 _What on Earth was she doing?_

"You wanna meet me at the Camelott in an hour?" he teased as he handed her back her underwear.

Boldly she stepped forwards and pushed the silky black panties into the front pocket of his jeans.

"I'll see you there in 2" she agreed before turning on her heel and storming out of the processor room and pulling her back pack over her shoulder.


	13. Chapter 13

"Dude.. what are we listening to?" Logan asked as he heard the random indie rock band blaring over the speakers. It wasn't like Dick to venture further than the top 40 of whatever happened to be on the charts that week.

"Just a Mix… I had that Piz guy burn it for me" he replied as he browsed through the surfing magazine in his lap.

"Expanding your musical horizons?" Logan quizzed as he began making himself an Espresso.

"Just a band I heard recently" Dick replied casually as his roommate studied him carefully.

"Since when do you go and see Bands?" Logan asked incredulously.

"I didn't go and see them.. they were on a t-shirt and I got curious" he elaborated evasively.

"They sound like the CD Mack plays in her car" Logan commented as he reached for the creamer. Dick had been acting strangely for the last few weeks. "You are still sleeping with her aren't you?"

"Several times a week… I'm lucky I can still walk… she is vicious.. you should see the nail marks on my back" he confessed as he sat forwards and took the coffee that Logan offered him.

"I thought you didn't want complicated?" Logan chuckled. He knew it! He had suspected as much.

"It's not me… it's her… she's made me her bitch…" he admitted.

"You trying to tell me she's got you whipped?" Logan asked incredulously.. the only other girl who had been able to get under Dicks skin like this had been Madison Sinclair.

"I don't know dude, but she looks at me with those bambi eyes and I'm naked" Dick told him.

"So it's just sex?" Logan enquired carefully. Cindy "Mac" MacKenzie was one of his girlfriend Veronica's best friends, he knew that she had split with her boyfriend recently, and she had seemed less than thrilled the morning after her their first night together.

"Secret Sex… or at least it was until you figured it out… Dude… if Veronica knows then I'm out the deposit on that hotel suite for this weekend" Dick fretted.

"Relax… she's been distracted with her Criminology class lately" Logan comforted him. He was a little worried if he was honest, Dick rarely stayed with the same girl longer than a few days. He didn't like getting tied down but this thing with Mac had been going for weeks, and in that time, he had been out the door to all of his classes, he had actually used the fitness suite in the Neptune Grand yesterday. Now he was listening to music that he didn't usually like… he was making an effort with her. He didn't want to see his friend get hurt.

"I plan to let her ride me out as long as she is willing" Dick told him. "The best part of it is… she doesn't want anything to do with me" he declared. It was true, she refused to have breakfast with him, she avoided his half of campus unless she was meeting him in the back of his car for an afternoon tryst. They had no contact unless she was clicking her fingers for his presence and he was totally into it. "I don't have to plan dates.. I don't have to worry about her feelings… she doesn't want to talk to me.. she just saddles up and we go to pound town… its electric"

"So you are listening to the bands she likes because… you don't want to get to know her better?" Logan sighed in frustration.

"I'm like a cat, I get curious…" Dick replied defensively.

"It's okay if you care about her Dick" Logan comforted. His friend was so in denial about this girl, Logan was actually shock… Dick was behaving like… well him.

"I only care about slipping her Dick junior" he retorted sarcastically while he made a mock doggy style gesture as he got up from his seat and started walking towards his bedroom with his drink.

"That why you are looking up concert tickets?" Logan as he glanced at the laptop screen Dick had left open on the table.

"What are you a detective now too?" Dick asked as he turned and picked up the laptop.

"No.. I'm your friend, man" Logan told him, his brown eyes glaring at his roommate.

"Alright.. I'm into her, she doesn't want me and it's a turn on" he admitted. "But it's clear she just wants me for sex so I'm okay with that"

"It's okay if you want more Dick.. I mean, she's obviously attracted to you" Logan said quietly.

"Damn right she is… Cindy and I are like a house fire" Dick told him.

"Cindy?" Logan repeated incredulously. No one ever called Mac by her first name except her parents, Logan knew this from the four years they had spent in classes together in High School and she had corrected her teachers each and every time.

"She likes it when I call her Cindy…" he said defensively. Logan grinned and bit his tongue, amusement flickering in his eyes… Veronica was not going to be happy about this. "Dude… what's so funny?"

"All in the name of Cin huh? I don't think she's that only into you for Sex" Logan explained as he patted his friend on the shoulder and walked back to his own room.

"What does that mean?" Dick called after him.

"Don't worry.. I won't say anything about it… but when she figures it out you'll know!" Logan said as he closed the door.


	14. Chapter 14

Logan stared at his phone again, a little disappointed. Veronica's shift in the library this evening at Hearst Campus was going to be running later than intended due to a biochemistry final tomorrow, so she was being inundated with laboratory geeks wanting help with their text books. She would be fingering through index reference cards for the evening and he wouldn't be getting to finger her at all he thought sullenly. _No Booty call tonight. Halo it is._ To be honest, it was kind of a relief… he was still sick with nerves at the thought of how he was going to propose.

"Dude… girls are bitches. It's like one rule for them and another rule for us…" Dick Casablanca's complained as he stormed into the Neptune Grand Penthouse that they shared.

"Trouble in Paradise?" Logan asked as he picked up the other Xbox controller and tossed it to his roommate.

"Paradise? More like Purgatory… she saw me having lunch with that Nadia chick today in the food court… which was totally platonic by the way, I was only getting her digits for Chip Wheeler because he's into red heads but guy has seriously no chill without some Brewskies" Dick explained as he picked up the controller and sat down on the couch.

"Mac saw you with another girl and now you are in the Dog House?" Logan asked. This little fling between Mac and Dick had been going on for about a month now in secret and he honestly couldn't remember the last time a girl had ever gotten so far under Dick's skin… well perhaps except for his brief flirtation with Jackie the lesbian hospitality staff.

"She completely blew me off…" he complained. "We were supposed to be going for some play time down in that new hotel by the Neptune Plaza, Serenity Inn? I'd got the room key and everything… then she stood me up" he grumbled. "I waited there for like an hour"

"Sorry man" Logan sympathised as he selected his armour.

"That's not the worst of it… I saw her just now, she's on a date with that Max guy who hooks folks up with Finals Papers?" he complained. "It's like she can go and talk all Nerd over Coffee and Chocolate Cakes but I can't even do a favour for a buddy"

"Isn't that Cobra Starship concert this weekend?" Logan asked as he hinted at the CD player, Dick had been playing the Mix that Piz had burned for him on a loop almost everywhere he went. He had even went out and bought himself an ipod shuffle so it would stop driving his roommate insane.

"Supposedly.. I talked to that facialist from the spa downstairs whose boyfriend is like the Roadey for the basest of a guy who shares a flat with the lead singers sister to get VIP passes and everything…" Dick sighed. "But I don't know.. I think I'll just give them to Piz to like put on the show this week for like help the musically obsessed or something" he sulked.

Logan looked at his best friend again, this was developing far faster than he had thought possible. Dick had started petitioning the hotel management to start providing better vegetarian options on the hotel room service menu when he had learned that Mac was vegetarian. He had stopped chasing parties and sitting in on a Friday night encase she called and wanted to take advantage of him. He had missed several classes this week because she had used Parkers current absence of visiting her brother and his new wife after she became an aunty for the first time to throw him naked around her bedroom at her leisure. He was falling hard for the cyberpunk hacktivist and it was starting to take its toll.

Logan had been sworn to secrecy, even though Veronica was now becoming suspicious about Dick's activities when he began to disappear at odd hours.

"Do you think he's like joined some secret frat brother cult?" she had asked Logan just yesterday.

"Have you tried speaking to her about this?" Logan asked quietly as Dick came back to the couch with a beer and handed one to him.

"What am I a chick?" he scoffed as he took a swig from the bottle and picked up his controller again. The two of them played for several minutes and then Dick paused the game. "Last time I tried to have a conversation with her, she shoved her panties in my mouth and told me to shut up" he sighed.

Logan absorbed that information with mild shock… Mac was always adorkable and generally very quiet. She was always so sweet and shy when she was around everyone else.

"Then.. don't you think its time you put your foot down a little?" Logan suggested.

"Feet down, legs in the air.. its all the same to her" he lamented. "As long as she get Dick Junior, she doesn't wanna hear what I have to say unless its Go Time"

"Then… perhaps you should stop for a while?" Logan advised as he looked at his friend seriously. "Date other people.. get back on your board" He knew from the morning after their first night together that Mac had been less than thrilled about their little hook up. She hid Dick away like a dirty little secret.

"Absence would make her booty calls fonder?" he repeated as he nodded.

"I'm pretty sure that's not how the saying goes…" Logan corrected.

"No… this is perfect…. If she won't play fair… then she isn't getting any" Dick declared a determined look growing over his face. "The Dickilicious store is closed for business"

"Please… don't ever call yourself that again… and good for you man.. you deserve to be treated better than….." Logan began before he was interrupted by Dick's phone alert.

 _Hey… my room 15 minutes. Cindy_

"Dude… I have to go" Dick said as he downed his beer and put down his controller.

"What happened to closed for Business?" Logan reminded him.

"Dude… its rude to keep a lady waiting" he argued as he headed out the door.

Logan shook his head and exited the game… perhaps it was time he had a serious conversation with Dick in the morning about his little tryst?


	15. Chapter 15

Veronica watched as Wallace continued to flirt with his new girlfriend Amira, her family owned the local kebab shop over on 23rd and Oakland, about a twenty minute walk from the campus and she had to admit, it was nice to see him so content again after he had broken up with Jackie Cook during the summer he had spent in New York.

"So uh… what did you think?" Piz asked as he sat down and smiled his usual lopsided puppyesque grin. He had just been having a debate on air about the recycling policies on campus vs the environmental research projects being refused grants within the science department and the conflict this was having with the schools more religious and secular groups.

"Very… science" she mused. She was tired after having been up most of the evening last night and Professor Landrys exercised today in the FBI profiling exercise had really taken it out of her.

"Just wait until I get into the Election special.. there's this whole section on how research grants are being refused because of the donators influences for Barkley Hall and the…." He rambled as she began to lose interest. Honestly, she didn't mean to be so rude, it's just he had a habit of talking constantly and his subject range often bled into many different areas, her dad would love it, but sometimes it was just nice to have some quiet at the lunch table. The difference made her wish Logan wasn't busy doing whatever it was he had to be doing today.

"I think that's totally cool, I used to be a member of my junior Republican Youth Squad back home" Parker smiled, and it was clear to Veronica that Piz was more on the Democratic side… all she would have to do is say Trump for President and she was sure Piz would spend the next hour delving into how Bernie Sanders was the obvious choice.

"Oh Yeah, Speaking of home.. how is the Nephew?" Veronica smiled, changing the subject. Give her pictures of cute babies and kittens any day. It worked, Parkers face lit up with all the joy of any girl with a new cell phone and an excuse to show off her pictures.

"His name is Nathaniel. He can barely fit in a shoe, he's so small" she gushed as she began to show them both the pictures and regaling them with tales of his sleeping habits and how he has her grandfather's nose. Veronica was a little jealous if she was honest, it was only her and her father. She would have loved to have siblings but alas she was an only child, and all of her grandparents were now passed on. Her life would have been so much easier had she had someone to talk to during the death of her best friend Lilly Kane and her parents' divorce. Although, given her boyfriend Logan's trouble with his adopted sister Trina, and half-brother who still refused to speak to him, perhaps they weren't all they were cracked up to be. She was just grateful for the respite as Parker continued her happy babble about how they should all go shopping after class and she could help her pick out an outfit for the baptism. Piz shifted uncomfortably in his chair again, he always looked so uneasy around Parker but Veronica wasn't sure why.

"Has anyone seen Mac this morning?" Veronica asked.

"Probably hiding in shame... I got home last night and our room was completely trashed. Condoms and clothes everywhere. That Max guy must be pretty adventurous for a Nerd" Parker said conspiratorially.

"She told me they just went for coffee" Veronica questioned, puzzled.

"Oh Mars, come on you ain't that Naive" Wallace laughed as he turned his attention back to their conversation and Amira started to chat to Piz about some of the local church groups on campus and how they were causing problems at her Mosque.

"It just seems a little quick is all" Veronica said sceptically. Mac had been evasive recently, it wasn't like her, at first Veronica had put it down to nerves for her Finals but then she had broken up with Bronson about three weeks ago and barely said anything about it.

"Well she is getting down with somebody because there's no way someone comes home with that much new underwear unless you plan to be showing it off" Parker mused.

"Have you asked her who?" Veronica suggested.

"I did… but she got all quiet and just headed for the showers" she giggled. "Whoever he is… he's a blond"

"What makes you say that?" Piz asked quietly.

"There was hair on her pillow when we were changing the sheets this morning… and it wasn't mine" Parker winked. "So is this Max guy hot?"

"Not really…. And he's a brunette" Veronica replied, casting a look at Wallace who had just about choked on his grape soda.

"You don't think…?" he spluttered, Veronica stared at him with wide eyes and nodded. It would explain all the strange behaviour… and then she began to analyse the random way Dick had been behaving, getting his messy hair trimmed down a little so he didn't look like Shaggy from Scooby doo. Wearing new t-shirts and smelling better. No… they couldn't be. Could they?

She reached for her phone and dialled Logan.

 _"Hi, This is Logan and here is Todays Inspirational Message. The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda. John C. Maxwell"_

"Hey Handsome… I miss you… call me when if you feel like skipping class tonight" she smiled.

"She was going to the Neptune Clinic this morning as far as I remember" Parker told them.

"Hey Gang… whatcha talking about?" Mac smiled as she sat down happily with her lunch.

"Babies…" Piz answered.

"Babies?" Mac repeated and she looked a little ashen.

"My Nephew" Parker gushed and she handed Mac the phone full of the latest Facebook updates of her latest family addition.

"I still can't believe I met her just at the beginning of term and now there's a new human on the planet… this does not compute with me, and I am pretty good with the good computing" Mac joked as she referred to Jenna, Parkers sister in Law who had been about four months Pregnant when she had met her at the beginning of the school year.

"Yeah… life is just full of surprises" Veronica smiled as she regarded her friend, looking at her with renewed interest. Cindy "Mac" MacKenzie was keeping something from her and Veronica was using all of her body language know how from this terms criminal profiling class to analyse her posture, the flush in her cheeks and the awkward way she evaded the question when Wallace started asking her how the date went last night.

"It was okay… but I don't think its going to go anywhere" Mac replied.

"Oh?" Parker probed.

"He's like a total Nerd… like his Death Star out guns my best Battle Destroyer" she dismissed, truthfully, the kiss she had shared with Max had been sloppy and awkward, there was no spark, no fire. He just didn't do it for her and the entire date which she had only accepted so he would stop asking, was ruined by her constant watching the clock until it was sufficient that she could leave and go and see her Casablanca's boy toy. She had never felt this wild before, this sexually awakened and in charge… it was a heady turn on. She was like one of those girls she had seen at school with the cheerleading uniforms on, taking control of her body and demanding what she wanted. Even if she did have to admit to herself that she occasionally liked the way he called her Cindy because it made her feel more like the girl she could have been had she grown up with her biological family. She got to be a different person around him, a sexy person. She could act a little bit like well… Madison.

It's just a shame, she hadn't been able to find the same kind of feeling or connection with someone who was more suited to her. Someone who didn't have the emotional depth of a child's ball pit.

He had asked her away for the weekend with him again and honestly she was tempted but she didn't know how much longer she could allow this to go on before she did something stupid like developed a crush on him or something.

 _Do not confuse great sex with actual feelings…._ she reminded herself. She was really tempted to confess everything to Veronica, to get some girly advice.. but she knew that that would make the whole situation more real. It would put a name to it, and then she would have to deal with this… she would have acknowledge what those two little pink lines on her test this morning had already confirmed.


	16. Chapter 16

Mac felt like she was going to throw up again as she held the small box in her hand and it wouldn't be the potential morning sickness this time… nope, this was all the box in her hand… a small ring shaped box. The one she had found in Dicks travel bag… the one he had packed for their "special" weekend away together. Dick Casablanca's was her latest questionable life choice. She paced the bedroom in their private cabin in Weller, California, a small town situated about two hours outside Neptune. Unlike the sunny beaches and California coastline in Neptune, Weller was a hillside town higher up in the Valleys, it was charming in a woodsy… lets go hiking and see bears postcard kind of way. The sort of place her family would have dragged her to in a leaky tent and where someone like Dick could spend a few days paddling down the rapids in a canoe of some kind.

The room suddenly felt like a small prison, it had been great fun yesterday.. messing around in the kitchen, laying about on the deck last night while he told her all about the stars and how they were different in all the different places he had been surfing. Turns out her blond bed warmer was a pretty good astronomer. Mac just thought they looked pretty, which made her feel a little uncultured for once while he started going on about the Greek myths and how they compared to Native American stories. Who knew he could actually teach her something?

They had gotten wild out in the forest park and the things they did would certainly have made the furry creatures blush. Parker thought she was away visiting family this weekend in San Diego and she was now beginning to wish she had really spoken to Veronica a few days ago.

 _What was Dick Casablanca's College Frat Play Boy doing with what looked like a freaking ENGAGEMENT ring?_

He was out getting breakfast at the moment and had been going on most of the day about how he had the best surprise for her this evening…. Oh God no! Was he going to PROPOSE?

She picked up the phone again, no bars. No phone signal since they had passed by the nearest hotel about a 20 minutes' drive from here. She really needed to talk to someone… the town had been filling with lots of students down for a pre-spring break weekend. They held a few events down here every year but Mac had been too busy freaking out over the pregnancy test results from the Neptune Clinic. They were still mostly inconclusive, a potential positive. They would know more in the next three weeks when the blood test could be repeated after her period was missed again.

She had no idea who the father was… it was either Bronson, her adorable animal rescuing vegan hippie ex-boyfriend. Or the party mad incredibly sexy surfer millionaire Dick Casablanca's.

Now Dick wanted to PROPOSE? This was almost as bad as the morning she had first woken up and found herself wrapped up against his sleeping face. If her parents ever found out about the potential baby… they would be marching her down the aisle with him with a shotgun at her back.

She might not have been able to get a phone call out, but the cabin had a hard wired old school internet connection, she could email someone to come and pick her up. It was cowardly… but right now she had to escape from here.

TO:B-Ball .uk, ParkerPerfection .uk, Vmars

Subject: RESCUE ME!

SOS! LONG STORY….

Can someone please come pick me up by Mile Marker 85 outside Weller, California.

I really need an evac! No signal, no car. HELP!

Love Mac

She hit send and was rewarded a few minutes later by an instant message from Wallace.

Wally: Whats wrong?

MackydaSlaya: I need picked up.

Wally: Everything ok?

MackydaSlaya: Not really… can you come get me?

Wally: Of course… are you safe?

MackydaSlaya: Yes… but I just really need to get home.

Wally: I'll see you in about 2 hours.

MackyDaSlaya: THANK YOU! XXX

She sighed in relief, now all she had to do was pack her stuff and get out of there. Dick was away with the car so she would have to hitch a ride with one of the groups staying next door. That Daisy girl from last night had offered to drive her into town earlier if she needed anything.

"Hey… are you still heading into Weller?" she asked as she approached the girls on the porch.

"Yeah, I was just about to do a beer run… you have a fight with your boyfriend?" Daisy asked sympathetically.

"No… nothing like that… I just got Cabin Fever. Need to be near a cell phone signal" she smiled awkwardly.

"UH… ok, no problem… does now work for you?" Daisy smiled as she kissed her girlfriend on the cheek.

"Now is Perfect" Mac nodded enthusiastically.

"Cool.. laters babe" she said as she pecked her partner on the cheek.

"Do not forget the shrimp chips!" Jane her girlfriend replied, spanking her on the back of the legs.

"Like I ever do?" Daisy frowned and rubbed her sore leg. "I'm just parked over here" Daisy replied pointing to the red pick up.

"Wow… your car looks…" Mac began as she looked at the rusty coloured Chevrolet.

"Like that rust bucket in Twilight… I know… my dad thought it was hilarious because I'm so pale" Daisy confirmed as Mac put her stuff into the back seat.

"Hey it moves…" she laughed.

"Exactly.. you sure you are ok? You look a little green" Daisy told her.

"Must be all this fresh air" Mac dismissed.

"Does he know you are leaving?" Daisy enquired.

"He's not my boyfriend.. not really.. we uh.. have been…. Hanging out… but now it's a little awkward.. so I need to go…" she spluttered in explanation.

"You getting picked up okay?" Daisy asked, concern in her voice.

"Yes.. my friend is coming to get me" she told her.

"They travelling far?" Daisy quizzed as they pulled out of the log cabin estate.

"Neptune" Mac replied.

"Neptune… as in the planet?" Daisy joked.

"Hahaha no… Neptune as in.. Kane Industries… Aaron Echolls.. Connor Levine.." she said name dropping some of the more well-known things about her home town.

"Oh yes! I think my Ex moved there" she smiled at Mac.

"So what has you down here?" Mac asked politely.

"Dirty weekend, break from college.. we are down for the festival" Daisy told her. "My girlfriend is a basest for The Meditation Sisters" she explained, mentioning the name of a local Indie band who Mac had started to listen to recently after Piz's recommendation.

"Shut up!" she beamed. "I love those guys… Blindspot under the Moon is one of my favourite songs" she gushed.

"I'll have to tell her you are a fan" Daisy smiled "We have some t shirts and Hoodys in the back if you want one"

"Oh I couldn't…" Mac replied.

"I insist.. we always end up with too many extra smalls and they have been laying in there for weeks" she insisted. "You sure you want to leave?" she enquired.

"I wasn't going to… but then I found something that is pretty much a deal breaker… I had to get out of there" Mac told Daisy as she tucked the blue streak of hair behind her ear.

"Enough said… well, I'll leave you wherever you want, and I'll give you my card, you have any trouble getting a rid, call me, or hells even just text me to let me know you got picked up ok?" Daisy warned.

"You are being so nice to me…" Mac said as she shook her head.

"What can I Say? I'm a sucka for gal in distress" Daisy flirted as she handed Mac the card with her details on it.

 _Ring Ring_

"Hello?" Mac answered.

"Hey, its Veronica… I just got your email.. are you alright?"

"OH God…. Veronica, I really need your help!" Mac told her.


	17. Chapter 17

"Dude… what the hell do you mean you LOST the ring?" Logan snapped as he listened to a distraught Dick Casablanca's his best friend and up until about ten minutes ago, he was his best man.

"Dude… I lost a whole person as well.. I can't find her anywhere… the girls next door said she left.. I guess she really didn't want to go to the concert, she was feeling sick this morning, so I went to get her some real food, not just the chips and stuff that we brought and when I got back she had taken off" Dick explained.

"Do you think she saw it?" Logan asked him referring to Dick's sort of sparring partner, Cindy "Mac" MacKenzie.

"No way dude.. I had it in my bag.. she aint no super sleuth, I hid it in the wash bag.. I don't know.. maybe its still in my room?" Dick suggested. Logan knew from experience that it definitely wasn't, Veronica had already searched through Dick Casablanca's bedroom for clues that Dick and Mac were having a secret love affair but she hadn't found anything. Logan was beginning to stress out now… its not exactly like he could just hire Veronica to track down her own missing engagement ring.

"It isn't" he sighed _. Perhaps this was a sign…_

"She ditched me dude… I was going to surprise her with those tickets and get her into the VIP and everything… this sucks… no wonder I don't date for serious like you" he complained.

Logan felt a little guilty, of course he was upset his friend was having a horrible day. He had actually gone to the trouble of trying to get serious and make a real effort with a girl for the first time, well ever since Senior Year and it hadn't worked.

"There's…" Logan began.

"Plenty of other hot fine ass Ghost World Chicks in the cabin next door, I know… but they ain't her. She actually let me string more than five words together last night… like in a sentence. I should have just stuck to meeting her in the computer lab processor room" Dick complained as he took a few bites of his cold breakfast bagel. If she didn't want to be around him, he would give her space. He wasn't clingy like Logan.

"Dude… just… take some time to calm down… and then drive home.. or do you want me to come out there and meet you?" Logan offered.

"Naw, it's okay man.. the drive down will be good for me. Try and shake some of this girl drama out of my head" he sighed. "Don't worry about the ring… I'll get you a new one" he promised.

"Just get home safe Dick" Logan told him and the two men said goodbye. He had never seen Dick like this before, and if he was honest it made him feel like a terrible friend. Dick was deeper than most people ever gave him credit for; there was a carefully guarded heart there, one that had been broken with his little brothers suicide. Logan knew only too well the pain that came from a close family member choosing to leave you, and the guilt that came with it. He had been hoping that this thing with Mac would work out for both of their sakes, it had been obvious that she was as into him as he was to her, and Mac was a good person, she would have seen the real Dick Casablanca's eventually. The one who Logan had known for years, the one who hid his dyslexia well and had gotten Logan through the worst few years of his life.

"What do you mean you found an engagement ring?" Wallace quizzed as he drove them home down the i6 to Neptune.

"What do you mean you think you are Pregnant?" Parker demanded, her blue eyes flashing at Mac in disbelief. "We had the safe sex talk…"

"What do you mean you were with Dick Casablanca's?" Veronica asked.

Mac looked at all three of them staring at her awkwardly.

"Gee… I really wish Piz was here… he would join in…" Mac said sarcastically. "What is this the Hearst Inquisition?" she sighed as she wrapped herself up inside the hoody that Daisy had given her.

"Okay… What were you doing out here anyways?" Wallace said calmly.

"Weekend away, with Dick" Mac answered.

"Logan's roommate… went to Neptune High.. you personally created the school Slam Site called We-Hate-Dick-Casablancas that almost got you suspended during our final year?" Veronica asked second.

"Yes.. the same" she admitted.

"Okay… so PREGNANT?" Parker asked hysterically.

"Turns out Dick Casablanca's might not be firing Casablanks!" she shrieked as she showed them the letter from the Neptune Clinic.

"This says its inconclusive.. possible positive from Urinary analysis but that they need to wait until your next cycle is due to do a blood panel to confirm" Veronica said as she read the letter.

"A Baby?" Wallace growled as his hands gripped the steering wheel. Were all the damn women in his life determined to drive him crazy? His mother had just started Keith Mars again casually, so his best friend could very well end up his step sister. Said best friend had just gotten back together with her psychotic jackass of a boyfriend Logan Echolls, although he did have his good points on occasion.. like saving her from rapists and mass murderers so Wallace was trying to get along better with him for her sake. Now Mac was maybe pregnant with her dead ex-boyfriends brothers baby? This is why he like Piz… that guy was straight forward.

"A Maybe Baby" Mac replied.

"Mac… we talked about this… safe sex!" Parker complained.

"If I am… its from that first night…" Mac corrected her.

"The First?" Veronica probed.

"Okay fine… this has been going on for a while now… but I had no idea how to tell you let alone want to admit it was happening!" Mac sobbed. "Now I think hes like totally in love with me or something… and we went away for the weekend and he got really secretive and kept telling me about wanting to give me a special surprise… then I needed mouthwash this morning because I was being sick and I went into his wash bag because I forgot mine… and I found THIS" she said as she reached into her pocked and pulled out the box.

"An engagement ring… its inscribed and everything!" she sobbed and stuffed the box back into her pocket.

"okay… well did he say anything?" Wallace asked.

"No… he doesn't know… I just got the hell out of there" Mac declared.

"You just abandoned him in the cabin during your dirty weekend away?" Parker asked incredulously.

"I left a note…" she replied sheepishly.

"Girl that is cold…" Wallace complained.

"Can we please just pull over? I feel sick again" Mac confessed as she grabbed the small paper bag again and began to heave.

Veronica and Wallace exchanged a look, solidarity. They should just try and be here for their friend, heavens knows her day was stressful enough as it was.


	18. Chapter 18

Logan stood in the corner of Veronica's living room feeling nauseous, there it was, the engagement ring he had bought for her sitting in a box on her coffee table… of course he couldn't exactly just come out and admit that it wasn't Dick's because he had been supposed to be hiding it from his girlfriend, petite, blond haired private investigator and super sleuth Veronica Mars. Luckily everyone else was too busy trying to console the freaked out Cindy "Mac" MacKenzie over the possible pregnancy scare.

 _Dick was not going to be happy about this.._ he thought. So much for not wanting complicated.

"But you KEPT the ring?" Parker commented.

"I didn't think about it" Mac answered.

"No….. you thought you were pregnant… and you found the engagement ring… and yes you panicked and freaked out and left and possibly ruined everything… but don't you see?" Parker said passionately. "You kept the ring!" she smiled enthusiastically.

"Yeah but I don't know what that means!" Mac told her roommate as she sniffed away another tear.

"It means… a part of you is totally into it!" Parker explained.

"Or.. that I'm just some klepto who didn't have time to think about it when I hit the eject button and ran for the hills" Mac argued.

"Either way… girl you owe that boy an explanation" Wallace told her, glancing at Logan.

"Have you heard from him?" Piz asked. Logan rolled his eyes, why was this guy always around? In his Stupid Argyle sweaters…. He intensely disliked him. He reminded Logan of a poor man's Duncan Kane.

"Just a voicemail but I haven't listened to it yet" she admitted.

"Maybe we should just wait until he gets back?" Logan suggested before anyone could propose they listen to it.

"Have you spoken to him?" Veronica asked.

"Yeah… he's driving back" Logan told her.

Logan really just wished that everyone else would just leave and that he could get his hands back on that ring and have a chance to clear this entire thing up with Mac in private before someone came along and spilled his secrets.

"I feel horrible.. I just panicked… I don't know if its hormones or something, but I saw that…" she said pointing at the ring on the table. "and I knew I had to get out of there"

"I should head home soon…" Logan told them "Perhaps I should take it with me?" he suggested. Praying that no one actually tried to open it. So far, the box had remained sealed.

"You can't just take it back" Parker protested. "He needs to come and ask for it" she declared.

"I don't want anything to do with it, take it… burn it… hide it in a space shuttle and send it… no wait.. send ME to Venus" Mac exclaimed.

Logan was worried for Mac now too. Pregnant? He had been watching this little drama between the two of them play out for the last little while and now it had blown out of all proportion faster than he knew what to do with. Nothing in their lives were ever easy, not in Neptune anyway. A team of writers from a teen high school drama couldn't come up with the amount of Angst they had been through.

He felt so powerless.. he could just confess and tell them that the ring belonged to him, that the "special surprise" was actually VIP passes for the concert this evening she had run away from Weller from. Not a secret marriage proposal under the stars… although, now Logan thought of it… that could have been perfect.

"Even if I am pregnant… and that's IF…. I am not MARRYING Dick Fricking Casablanca's" Mac declared. _Even if he IS the best sex of my life…._ Mac thought silently.

"You said the ring was inscribed?" Piz asked as he reached for the box.

"Dude… that's private" Logan scolded and tried to discourage him from reaching for the box.

"Logan's right… this day has been humiliating enough…" Mac said frowning as she picked up the box and handed it to him. "Tell Dick… God I don't even know how to start that conversation… but please… please… can we keep the whole…." She said as she gestured towards her stomach "Situation private until I know for definite?"

"You don't want to tell him?" Veronica asked.

"Well it's either his or Bronsons… and I don't want to have that conversation with two of them if there isn't anything to tell" Mac elaborated.

Parker made a lips sealed and throwing away the key motion.

"I got your back sister" she declared as she hugged Mac through the sweater.

"You left a note… what did you say?" Logan asked.

 _"Had to go?"_ Mac told him.

Wallace shook his head. "Ya'll need to be taking classes in communication or something…" he said as he rolled his eyes.

The little party in the small living room of the Mars Apartment was interrupted by Keith Mars returning from walking their dog, a four year old Pitbull called Backup.

"Hello Mr Mars" Logan smiled awkwardly and was rewarded by the usual Dad stare.

"Logan" he replied as he took off the leash.

"Hi Daddy" Veronica smiled.

"Sweetheart… we having guests for dinner?" Keith asked as he looked around at the invasion of college students in his home.

"Uh no… we were just picking something up" Veronica smiled as she cast a look around at her friends.

"Right… and now we have it… I think it's time that get Mac back home… she's been feeling a little unwell today" Parker smiled politely.

"Nice to see you again Keith" Piz said as he shook Veronica's fathers hand.

"Stosh, good to see you too, thanks for that book by the way, Uganda… it was powerful stuff" he said as he pointed at the book Soldier of Misfortune by a Hearst Student. Logan felt a stab of jealousy. Yeah… he really didn't like this Piz guy.

"I have a few others I could recommend, I'll be covering them on my show this Friday, you should tune in" Piz suggested.

"Yeah… yeah I just might. Veronica usually has it on in the office" he told him. Logan flashed a quick glance to his girlfriend, she had never mentioned anything to him about listening to Piz's radio show, although now he thought about it, she did usually have the local campus radio station on while she was at work in the library.

"Well.. I should get going" Logan said softly as he gave Veronica a small kiss on the forehead and headed towards the door.

"Mind dropping us over at campus on your way by?" Parker flirted with Logan.

"I can drive you" said Wallace and Piz grimaced, he found Parker to be insufferable with her cheerleader sorority bubbliness.

"Sure" Parker smiled.

"I don't care who drives… just make sure the windows are rolled down" Mac said as she picked up her overnight bag.

"Everything ok Honey?" Keith asked.

"Stomach flu" Veronica dismissed as she hugged Mac goodbye. "Call me later ok?" she told her.

"If I'm not blowing up chunks or taking off to Vegas after he gets back… who knows?" Mac smiled.

"You coming over later?" Logan asked quietly as he finally got Veronica alone by the porch.

"I might head over and check on Mac… I still cant believe Dick was going to propose…" she said in disbelief. "Of course I didn't think that Mac and Dick would be a thing.. let alone that rolled up Maxim magazine where his heart should be would let him develop feelings like a real boy" she said in a mock Pinocchio voice.

"Maybe we should wait until we get all the facts first" Logan suggested as he clutched the box with the ring in his pocket.

"Ok.. I gotta get a look at this thing…" she giggled as she went to reach for it.

"Or maybe how about we don't go looking into things that are private?" he said as he pushed his hands deeper into his pockets.

"Umm… yeah.. okay.. I guess" she said, a little taken aback.

"Dick's not all bimbo's and video games and getting stoned Veronica.. He's my friend… and he obviously likes Mac… and we don't know whats been going on between them" he told her passionately "I think we should just cut him some slack… so I am going to go home now and make sure my roommate and best friend is okay now" he told her stubbornly.

"Your right…" she relented feeling rebuffed and she stepped away from him. "I'll talk to you later" she said softly before turning and walking back into the house. _Great.. now he felt like a jackass again._

"She thinks I want to MARRY her?" Dick exclaimed… "I just wanted to go to a concert and get BREAKFAST every once in a while… I've already got divorced once this year… my dad would frigging kill me!" he said after Logan had given him the run down of everything that had happened. "Dude… I am so sorry… worst best man ever…"

"It's not your fault Dick" Logan comforted as he played with the small rose gold band in his hands.

"At least only Mac saw it" he offered.

"You really need to talk to her Dick" Logan warned him.

"She won't pick up" he informed him, rolling his eyes.

Logan knew that reaction all too well… was it something they had been taught together in Neptune High during their chats about Menstrual Cycles.. how to drive the man you are sleeping with completely crazy in 4 easy lessons… One, exist. Two, Acknowledge the man exist. Three, Sleep with him and rock his world. Four… ignore his existence again then repeat step three until insanity has been achieved.

He couldn't quite bring himself to confess about the possible pregnancy, he was Mac's friend too but really, it was up to her to tell Dick these things, not Logan.

He had screwed up with Veronica again, she thought he was angry with her… he wasn't. He had just been so stressed that she would see the ring too early. He traced a finger over the inscription.

 _My abiding love is for you._

He wasn't sure now if he would ever work up the courage now to ask her after how shocked he had seen her react that someone would ever contemplate getting engaged while they were in college.

"Dude… pizza?" Dick asked as he lifted the room service menu.

"Nandos?" Logan offered.

"A woman translator?" Dick suggested.

"A crystal ball?" Logan countered as he handed his friend the controller to the Xbox and they fired up Halo. This time there was no booty call text from Mac to interrupt them.


	19. Chapter 19

"Okay first of all… Leaving like that wasn't cool… and I'm sorry! But second of all, I am not MARRYING you!" Mac declared as Dick Casablanca's stood sleepily in the doorway of his Penthouse Apartment Suite.

"What time is it?" he asked yawning as he looked at his watch.

"3am.. I couldn't sleep" she told him as she barged past him into the apartment.

"So you came over for a booty call?" Dick asked puzzled, running a hand through his dishevelled hair.

"No!" she denied but gulped a little as she realized he was standing in front of her in only his boxers. "Look.. I like you… I do…. But I am not ready for that kind of commitment… it's only been 2 months!" she exclaimed.

"Look Cindy…" he began. _Oh god why did the way he say her name give her tingles down her back like that?_

"Just please don't get creepy.." Mac pleaded as she paced around the living rom. "I wanted our weekend together I did… then I saw that ring and I just panicked… you are… actually really sweet… and I…."

"It's Veronica's" he blurted out, he knew Veronica was with her Dad because Logan had been wandering around trying to figure out where to hide the ring or how to explain everything to Mac earlier.

"Huh?" Mac asked. "You want to propose to Veronica?" she asked incredulously.

"Not me!" he denied. "Logan!" pointing at the bedroom door.

"What?" she asked as she almost fell over and sat down on the foot stool behind her. "But all that stuff about the _Special_ surprise and you kept saying that even when you were naked… so I couldn't fathom what the hell you were talking about…." She reasoned.

""Logan wanted me to hide the ring… I only wanted to give you concert tickets… which we missed by the way" Dick said pointing at the envelope on the bookshelf beside the television.

"You bought me concert tickets?" she asked in a surprised quiet voice.

"Yeah.. for that Indie stuff you like" he said casually as she got up and picked up the small brown envelope.

"Cobra Starship? VIP passes?" she asked incredulously and her heart flipped over a little. She had been obsessed with these guys for months.. she had been looking into when they were going to be playing but last she heard they were doing some music festival in…. Weller, California. She sighed and hung her head in shame. This would have been an amazing surprise and she had just ruined it when she had ran away from him this morning.

Wallace had been right.. what kind of person just disappears without any kind of explanation?

"It's no big deal…" he said as he shrugged and looked coolly at the fireplace display.

"And you don't want to marry me?" she asked as she slid the passes back into the envelope.

"No… I've already been divorced once this year" he replied.

 _Divorced?_

"Okay…. Come with me" she said grabbing his hand and heading towards his bedroom.

"What's going on?" he questioned in confusion.

"I…" Mac said as she pulled him closer and kissed him. "am going to make it up to you…" she told him as she pulled her t-shirt off and he stared at her in surprise. "and then I wanna buy you breakfast"

Logan was surprised to see Mac and Dick curled up on the sofa in matching dressing gown the following morning giggling on the balcony feeding each other strawberries.

"Dude… what's going on?" he asked shyly.

"Well Cindy and I are now a thing… and she knows but I've sworn her to secrecy or she won't be getting any of this" Dick explained gesturing to himself "and we are just having breakfast."

Mac smiled at Logan nervously.

"You're going to propose?" she asked as Logan leaned against the doorway and sighed.

"That had been the plan…" he answered looking at his shoes. "Now.. I dunno…"

"This is all my fault.." she lamented.

"You couldn't have known… and I sort of upset her last night I think.." Logan told her.

"She had that stuff to go over with her dad about Dean Odell.. I think she went to check out something about his computer?" Mac explained.

"Could be why she didn't come over last night" Logan agreed _. I hope…_

"Okay… so while Veronica is off solving murders… why don't you make yourself a coffee and we can all talk about how we get this mess all untangled so you can propose?" Mac told him.


	20. Chapter 20

"Hey Veronica" Weevil said as he saw the familiar blond teen detective standing in the cafeteria in front of the coffee menu.

"Hey Weevil.." she replied quietly.

"Everything okay? You seem a little distracted.. now your usual ball-busting self" he joked.

"Sheriff Lamb was killed last night" she said solemnly, it had been the evidence that they had found of the fingerprints on the computer keyboard belonging to Steve Botando the night Hearst's Basketball coach had been killed that had led to the empty house where he had been hiding.

"What? How?" Weevil asked as he took the time to absorb the news. Sheriff Lamb had been running the department for the last three years and during high school as leader of the PCH biker club, Weevil had known him very well. He had been responsible for his arrest at his high school graduation in the connection of the disappearance of Eduardo Orisoco, aka Thumper.

"Baseball bat to the head" Veronica explained sadly. "Should have gone to see the Wizard for a stronger skull" she said quietly.

Josh hadn't killed his father, and Steve Botando had only been doing the dying coach a favour to help him avoid a painful and slow death that would have drained his family of all of their financial resources to afford his treatment. If she and her father hadn't pursued the investigation so aggressively, maybe Sheriff Lamb would have just tried to keep looking for Josh who had already planned to skip the country after finding the suicide video his father had left for him. He wouldn't have gone looking for Steve Botando… and he wouldn't have been pronounced dead at 10.54pm last night.

She hadn't called Logan yet, her father had been too upset and now he was on his way to the Balboa County Sheriff's Department for his first day back as Sheriff. The election last year had been close, but she was sure her father would rather have had his return to Office be under better circumstances.

"That's rough" Weevil agreed.

"Looks like you get to call my dad Sheriff for real this time" she said as she picked up the small cappuccino from the vending machine and walked with him into the corridor.

"Hey… If I get in any trouble with parole violations.. at least I know I got a good man looking out for me" Weevil smiled sadly. Lamb may have been the proverbial incompetent pain in their collective asses, but in a seedy corrupt town like Neptune, when it counted he was still better than most.

"Veronica… Hey" Piz smiled as he came walking towards the canteen.

"Hey. How are you?" Veronica asked politely.

"Tired, but I am up first this morning because Daniel Drive Time Disco has broken down.. so now I have to DJ and over-caffeinate" he joked as he turned and headed towards the coffee machine.

"Okay well.. good luck!" she smiled. How could one person possibly be so full of energy first thing in the morning? She mused to herself as she cradled the hot liquid necessity in her cold hands.

"Morning Mars" Wallace said quietly.

"Hey Wallace" she replied as he gave her a small hug.

"How you holding up?" he asked.

"About as well as could be expected, conflicted" she told him honestly.

"Yeah, I was talking to your dad this morning.. giving him my best.." Wallace explained.

"It just feels so surreal… I mean.. the guy has been a pain in my ass since sophomore year" Veronica told him. Even our adversary's aren't invincible to the chaos that is Neptune. This town would chew you up and spite you out if you let your guard down for long enough.

"You heard from Mac this morning?" he asked.

"No maybe she's with Parker" she replied.

"I just spoke to Parker… she wasn't in the room this morning" Wallace explained.

"She probably just needs a little time to think, we could check the computer lab after first classes are over this morning?" she suggested. Veronica knew that Mac liked to take advantage of the empty computer labs sometimes at night to run her programming simulations when she wouldn't be disturbing the postgrad students.

"Okay cool.." Wallace agreed as he shifted the gym bag he was carrying to his other shoulder. "Listen, I gotta run, the new coach has us running early drills this morning.. but if I don't get there text me and I'll meet you for lunch" Wallace told her.

"Fine… but then I want to talk about _Amira_ …" she teased.

"What is this Gossip Girls?" Wallace protested. "You know a gentleman don't kiss and tell Supafly!" he winked.

"You know you will reveal all Sodapop!" she promised as he laughed and headed off to class.

In a life that was changing increasingly fast… she was glad that some things stayed the same.


	21. Chapter 21

Logan waited until Dick excused himself from the table to go and have a shower before he turned to look at Mac who was still finishing her breakfast.

"He doesn't know yet… so stop looking at me like that" she told him pointedly.

"That you might be carrying his baby?" Logan said raising an eyebrow.

 _Was this really the best way for them to start off this buddying relationship?_

"Not so loud!" she scolded him as she put down her yoghurt.

"How long do you think you keep something like that from him before he… starts to notice?" Logan said, hinting at her belly.

"First of all… we don't know for sure, so why ruin a good thing while it lasts. Second of all, Mutually Assured Destruction my friend. You breathe a word of this… and these lips will let loose with all your little Romeo plans" She warned.

"You'd tell Veronica?" he said incredulously. _Surely she wouldn't?_

"You'd tell Dick?" she said, her big clear blue eyes said pleading.

"It's not my secret to tell" he assured her.

"Exactly…" she smiled weakly. _A truce then._

"So you and Dick huh?" Logan smiled, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh God… I know… I don't even know how this happened" she replied, her cheeks were starting to burn with embarrassment. Dick and Mac couldn't be more opposite.

"I think there's still footage of that somewhere in the living room…" he joked referring to the security footage of the first time that she had ended up in the penthouse suite that night with Dick.

"I just wasn't… looking for this.. you know?" she said quietly.

"Yeah, I know what you mean…. The good ones.. they kinda take you by surprise" Logan said understandingly. He certainly never envisioned before his Senior year after the murder of his girlfriend Lilly Kane that he would be falling head over heels for his then enemy Veronica Mars.

"Yeah" she smiled in agreement.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly.

"A little worried… I have no idea what I am going to do if…" she said placing a hand on her stomach.

"Dick's a good guy… and he really likes you…" Logan assured her. "And Veronica and I will be here for whatever…" he promised.

"Thanks Logan" she replied.

"Dude… have you got toothpaste? I think I left mine back in Weller" Dick called from the bathroom.

"Yeah… I'll have a look" Logan replied getting up to go and get some.

"Hey Hottie" Dick winked as he peeked his head out through the doorway and smiled at Mac.

She might be having her doubts about her future, but that smile made her worries melt away.

Amira and Wallace were just returning from their afternoon jog along the beach when he received the text from Veronica about joining them for a triple dinner date that evening.

"Anything but Indian food" Amira pleaded as she caught her breath back.

"How can you say that? I love me a little something spicy.." he joked, pulling her in for a kiss.

"You… haven't had to live off of leftovers from your families' restaurant almost every night since you were 8 years old" she teased.

"I'd gladly finish off those leftovers for you…" he joked and wrapped his arms around her. "If you'd ever invite me over to meet your parents" he teased.

"I told you… after the whole Nasir debacle they are a little on edge.. the community can be a little unforgiving sometimes" she said sadly.

"Hey it's okay.. just as long as you aren't ashamed of me" he chuckled.

"Ashamed? No way… I am dating Wallace Fennell… Basketball Nubian Prince of Hearst" she purred as she pulled him in closer and kissed him.

"I am never going to get any studying done if I keep doing this with you" he joked.

"I am totally up for spending some time getting to know your friends" she agreed as they walked back into his dorm room.


	22. Chapter 22

"Are you kidding me right now?" Wallace asked Veronica as he arrived down at the marina to where the private dinner yacht was sitting waiting tied up.

"Nope… all aboard for Romance central!" she grinned nervously.

"Where exactly do you think this thing is going?" Wallace quizzed her as he took in the sight of the large vessel. He was certainly underdressed for this. "You do know we have only been on a few dates?" he said in a hushed tone as Amira approached them.

This was going to be setting the bar for him to impress next time very high he thought as he crooked an eyebrow at his petite blond best friend.

"There's space… and you aren't alone. Parker and Piz are here… there's a whole mini casino night downstairs.. it's monopoly money but it could be fun?" Veronica replied sheepishly.

"A casino night? On a private yacht?" Wallace repeated.

"Dinner included… it's my treat!" she smiled.

"Isn't this the boat of that trust fund kind who lost his corporate phone a few weeks ago?" Piz asked as he stepped onto the slipway beside the ramp.

"Yeah, Zoe and Joel are on board as well" Veronica confirmed and turned to wave at their hosts.

"Cool… so is this like a secret case?" he asked giving her that too many perfect teeth smile. Who over the age of 12 still smiled like that?

"No… this is just… fun fun fun" she told him simply, as she held the small box in her hands.

She was nervous. Veronica Mars, getting down with the big romantic gestures… who knew she would such a _Girl_ about this kind of stuff?

"Veronica… this is amazing!" Parker gushed as she came to join them.

"No Mac?" Veronica asked as she noticed her roommate hadn't come with them.

"Morning sickness AND motion sickness?" Parker replied, pulling an uneasy face.

"Point taken" Wallace laughed as he slipped his arm around Amira.

"Am I the only one who feels a little underdressed?" Piz said as he looked down at his attire, Wallace had told him it was casual drinks and something to eat… not 5* yachts and almost a private gala. The closest Piz had ever been to something like this had been the summer he had spent down in the Hamptons with his brother George working in the country club before his internship had started at the Radio Shack.

"It's fine…" Veronica assured him, even though she was dressed to kill. This dress had been chosen weeks ago, as had this little trip out to Catalina Island. She had spared no detail… tonight would be perfect.

"Are you guys ready to come get ready?" Zoe Galen asked as she called.

"There's like suit jackets and stuff downstairs if you guys wanna get changed" Veronica explained.

"You should have met these guys before Prom…" Wallace laughed as he was led towards the room where the Galen's family tailor was offering to get them measured for their Tux fitting.

"He's running a little late" Veronica sighed as she stood next to Parker.

"Does he have any idea what's going on?" she giggled.

"Nope.. it's a surprise" Veronica admitted.

"An overnight romantic mini cruise, and the touristy stuff on Catalina Island tomorrow?" Parker asked. "Why Catalina Island?"

"Sort of a… trip we didn't get to take one time" Veronica told her shyly.

"Well… you were right. Joel is totally Dishy" Parker agreed.

"Just a shame Mac cant make it" Veronica told her.

"Mac and Dick are working through their issues… several times… I was almost impressed" Parker giggled. "Some chick Mac met in Weller knows the headliners from that concert… they are heading up to San Diego for a private gig… sort of all the bands together having a jamming session"

"I'm surprised Piz didn't want to go" Veronica told her.

"And miss an opportunity to meet the Zoe Galen? One of the 25 to watch under 25 for Robotic technology?" Parker gushed.

"You know who she is?" Veronica smiled in surprise.

"I'm taking classes in Media and Communication.. public relations… these advancements are going to be everywhere in the next 15years… robotics is the future" Parker told her.

"You read Joel's company bio didn't you?" Veronica giggled.

"If you wanna get with a guy… get with his sister!" Parker smiled.

Veronica was interrupted when her phone rang.

"Hey" she answered.

"Hey… where are you? All I can see is this giant boat" Logan asked.

"I am the giant boat.. come on board" Veronica explained.

"This your way of trying to tell me you gave Berth?" Logan joked.

"Logan…" she sighed.

"I tried not to… but I'll never let go Jack…." He teased. _What were they doing here?_

"I'll meet you up on the outside part" she told him.

"What is all this?" he laughed as he looked at the waiters setting tables and the large pool behind them.

"This is long overdue.." Veronica answered him shyly.

"I don't understand" Logan said as she handed him a small box, she looked so beautiful in her grey silk dress. He felt a little underdressed in comparison.

"How do you feel about taking a little ride out on my friend Joels boat?" she smiled, but they knew this was more like a mini cruise liner than just a simple yacht. "Dinner and a movie?"

"In Neptune?" he joked.

"Catalina Island?" she answered finally.

A small look flashed over his face, a ghost of a memory of the morning she had stood him up for their first ever date at the beginning of their relationship.

"I think it sounds perfect" he told her quietly as he interlaced his fingers with hers as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

"That man is handsy… you better watch yourself" Wallace warned as he appeared back on deck in his new suit and sports jacket.

"Well… you tell him, the only one getting handsy with Wallace Fennel is me" Amira smiled as she reappeared wearing a stunning red crushed velvet dress. Veronica almost giggled when she saw the enamoured look on his face.

 _Wing man Veronica? High five for the Romance._

Logan took the small box and opened it, inside was a small set of cufflings and a tie perfectly matching the cerulean background where the letters were.

"Are these..?" he gasped as he recognised the small shiny pieces of metal with his initials on them.

"The one's you mother bought you with your initials the night of Homecoming dance?" Veronica told him.

"I thought these were lost in the fire…" he breathed, a lump forming in his throat.

"Apparently Havier, one of Weevil's drinking buddy's wanted a little souvenir from that night… thought they were worth something because of the setting" Veronica explained as she pointed out the small diamonds spelling out L.E.

He pulled her to him and kissed her. She had tracked these down for him.

A small piece of his mother that he had thought was lost to him forever.

"I love you.." he whispered, tears welling in his eyes.

"Oh but you haven't even seen the Casino yet!" she exclaimed as she pulled him downstairs towards the poker table where Piz and Parker were standing beside the Galen siblings.


	23. Chapter 23

Logan gasped as he gripped Veronica's small hips and drove himself into her deeper and her tight pussy clenched around his shaft while she held her hands over her mouth to try and stifle the moans of pleasure threatening to erupt from her as they had sex with her pressed against the small mini bar in the guest bedroom. Watching her expertly play earlier at the casino tables while she had been wearing this silk figure hugging grey dress had been tormenting him all evening and he hadn't been able to contain himself. He had never wanted her so desperately before, finally he shuddered against her shoulder as he came and released his hold on her, panting.

"We have a bedroom on board you know" she giggled as Veronica pulled her dress down again. "We are here all night…"

"We aren't finished" he promised as she smoothed down her hair and adjusted her shoulder straps. He never did things like this, not when other people were so close by… they could have been discovered any moment.

"I found it" she smiled as she picked up the bottle of scotch from the display case. "We should get back…" she whispered in his ear, she looked so flawlessly put back together. His heart was racing, he was tired and his shirt was wrinkled mess and the sweat was beading along his forehead.

"You have to stop texting me things like that…" he pleaded as she pulled away from his kisses.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"That you aren't wearing any underwear…" he scolded her. "All the things you wanna do to me after this date…" he tried to pull her mouth back to his but she playfully dodged his lips.

God's she was killing him…

"I love it when you look at me like that" she told him tauntingly as she tucked his shirt in and pulled his belt closed.

"Like what?" he breathed as she gripped the zip but her warm fingers lingered a moment too long and he felt himself growing with interest again.

"Like you are going to screw the hell out of me again later" she winked as she pulled up his zipper and walked out of the room and back to the main games room on the cruise ship.

He excused himself to the small bathroom, the woman was going to be the death of him.

"You feeling okay man?" Wallace asked when he returned to the poker table.

"Yeah you look a little flushed" Parker commented in a concerned voice.

"Yeah.. just needed a minute…" Logan replied sheepishly.

"Tell me about it.. I don't have good sea legs either" Piz admitted as he looked at his cards.

"We going to keep talking about legs or are we going to play?" Zoe Galen smiled as passed around another few drinks.

"Play time!" Veronica declared as she picked up her own cards again.

 _Oh Bobcat… if you want to play games… we are going to play…_ Logan smiled as Veronica grinned at him.

Logan didn't really do quickies, he preferred to take his time. His code word was Endurance and most of the evening Veronica Mars had been alternately getting his pulse racing and teasing him. He was so distracted he kept losing his poker face.

"It is amazing you are still rich… I thought you were good at this?" Wallace laughed as Amira just beat him again.

"I usually am.. must be all the sea air" Logan replied. This had been a great idea, it had never been so easy to be around Veronica's friends, and he was doing something that he really enjoyed.

"I still can't get over how delicious those deserts were… I need my own army of minions to cook like that for me every day…" Amira pouted as she picked up her chips and snuggled against Wallace's shoulder.

"Doesn't Bombay Gardens have a desert counter?" Wallace asked, confused.

"It's not the same…" she giggled.

Logan snuck a glance over at Veronica again as he played with the small metal cufflink on his sleeve. He had never felt so whole, so loved before. The power of this feeling frightened him… to think that he'd almost had to spend the rest of his life missing her loving him like this. He didn't want to think about what would have happened if she hadn't forgiven him, where he would have ended up.

His gaze flickered onto Stosh "Piz" Piznarski… He didn't like him. He hadn't liked him ever since that night he had helped Dick in the canteen at Hearst and saw the way he had looked at Veronica, all his school boy charm. Something about him had reminded him of Duncan Kane… but he couldn't quite put his finger on why.

L.E.

Logan Echolls. He wondered if there was a version of something he could get eventually to match.

V.E.

Veronica Echolls…

They were finally getting that trip out to Catalina Island, in their time recently spent dating, he wondered why he had never tried to arrange that trip for them again. Perhaps it had been because the memory of the first time held too many painful memories?

But she had arranged it this time. She had gone out of her way arrange _all of this_ … she didn't even like boats… she had track down the small cufflinks between his fingers… _just for him?_

Most of his life Logan had never really felt like was worth anything to anyone. Certainly not to his parents… not to Lilly Kane… and he had even doubted that Veronica ever cared him as much as she had loved his best friend Duncan Kane.

As if sensing his thoughts she turned from Parker and smiled at him, the unguarded love in her eyes coiled itself around him. It was unmistakable. This is the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.


	24. Chapter 24

"Oh I love this song!" Zoe beamed as the on-board playlist randomly selected Hanson – Mmmbop. "Sorry, guilty pleasure, our brother Anthony had his kids here last weekend and we haven't got around to taking out most of the tracks yet" she explained.

"No, it's good… I actually saw them perform this live a few months ago before I came to Neptune, it was at this music festival in San Diego, my brother and me were travelling last summer" Piz commented.

"I remember being Jake and Nathan's age when this song first came out… 20 years released now… where does the time go?" Zoe joked.

"I don't know about you, but I could use some air… who is up for getting into the hot tub?" Joel smiled as he wrapped an arm around Parker. "There are bathing suits in your rooms"

"Sounds good to me" she smiled.

"I think I'm going to retire into the cinema... would you like to join me?" Zoe asked Piz who visibly blushed.

"Uhhh….. sure" he smiled, that same lopsided shy toothy grin, looking to his roommate for support on the other side of the roulette table.

Wallace chuckled at the little exchange and the obvious embarrassment of his roommate, he wasn't used to dealing with such a confident and forward woman such as Zoe Galen. At 23 years old she had already achieved more than most people would ever hope to accomplish, the youngest CEO of Galen Industries, the Worlds leading research and manufacturing engineer for robotic medical technology in the Western hemisphere. _She would eat Piz alive._

"I think we will join Joel in the hot tub" Wallace smiled, much to Piz's dismay and Amira's amusement.

 _Oh your own buddy…_

"Are you sure?" Piz asked awkwardly before he cast a quick glance at Veronica and Logan.

"I'm kind of tired, I hope you don't mind if we just call it a night?" Veronica yawned as she curled Logan's arm around her.

"Of course… we have a big day tomorrow" Zoe smiled and picked up her scotch and headed towards the cinema room with Piz.

Parker and Amira made their way back upstairs to the outside deck to the hot tub in their bikini's while Logan and Veronica made their way to their room, they were barely inside when he twirled her around, making her face the door, taking her by surprise. His breath was hot against her neck and she looked over her shoulder at him with wide eyes. She'd been teasing him most of the night… and now she was all his.

He placed a hand against the door, pressing her against it, and kissed her neck, she was trapped while he unzipped her silk grey dress and his guided it down her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor, she was naked now, except for her bra and he gripped her breast, while his other hand went to her hip.

"Logan?" she asked nervously.

"I told you we weren't finished Bobcat" he whispered as he reached his fingers around to play with her, teasing her. Kissing her neck while she moaned quietly, her perfume was intoxicating and he felt her shudder against him. She wanted to jump him and he knew it. Her body was desperate to feel more of him, heat flowed through her and her nipples hardened. He swirled a finger against her clitoris and she whimpered, her hips grinding against his palm.

"Logan…" she gasped.

"I know what you want Veronica… but not yet…" he sighed into her ear as he slid a finger inside her.

She braced her hands against the door as the tremors shook her body, making her knees a little unsteady.

"You see… if you had been wearing panties… I might've waited long enough for you to make it to the bed" he said huskily as he nibbled her ear.

"God…" she said biting her lip. "You didn't mind earlier… when you screwed me against the mini bar…" she gasped.

"Didn't mind? I've been thinking about that all night…" he admitted as he delved his fingers deeper as a wicked smile played on her lips.

"I know…" she giggled and he tenderly bit her shoulder.

 _Damn the woman was insatiable…_

"So where first?" he asked, his voice was gruff, "Here against the door? On the hard wood floors? Or should I take you in the shower?"

"Dealers choice" she smiled as he put his other hand onto her hip and she began to rock against his fingers while he touched her. The sensations building into a heat that surged through her body, she was getting so wet now, so ready… "Clothes… off…." She panted, he was still fully dressed and she needed to feel his warm skin against hers.

"You want my clothes off… then undress me…" he challenged her as he stopped playing with her and stood back. Veronica turned around and kissed him hungrily, pulling his tie open and reaching for the buttons on his shirt, he chuckled at how eager she was to have him naked, shrugging out of the shirt as she reached for the waistband of his pants, he grabbed her wrists and pressed her back against the door again, kissing her neck.

"Logan…" she growled in frustration as he pinned her hands above her head and continued to kiss her slow and deep.

"Not so fun when you just wanna rip someone clothes off and you can't huh?" he told her, his voice was hoarse and thick with need. Her blue eyes blazed with desire and she shook her head playfully as he captured her mouth with his again.

"I want you Logan… right now" she declared as she whimpered against his mouth. She ached to have him inside her, closer, that sweet delicious friction. He deepened their kiss and she could feel him smiling against her mouth, he was teasing her. She captured his lower lip and nibbled it, sucking on it briefly and pulled him closer by hooking a leg behind his knee, she could feel him stiff against her thigh straining through his pants. "I love everything about you. The only thing, which bothers me, is your clothes. Take them _off_."

"You drive me crazy…" he gasped as she rocked her hips against him.

"Then give me what I want…" she purred. He released her hands from above her head and traced his fingers down her arms to her breasts, unhooking her cream lacy bra. She ran her hands down his muscled torso to the waist band of his trousers, kissing his collarbone, she opened them and pulled his hard shaft free from his boxers, she kissed down his stomach and gave him a cheeky grin as she knelt down in front of him, yanking his trousers down to his knees.

"Veronica…" he warned as she cupped his balls and ran her fingers along his shaft.

 _He was supposed to be teasing her…_

She took him into her mouth and licked the tip of his cock and he shuddered, gasping, bracing himself against the door while her tongue flicked against him and sweat began to bead down his forehead. Her mouth was soft, warm, wet. She looked up at him with her beautiful eyes while her tongue licked the tip, teasing him and soon she was working a nice easy rhythm and he was helpless as she controlled the speed, pressure, and areas of focus making him shiver.

"Oh God Veronica…" he gasped, pulling himself away before he lost control completely, she stood up, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as Logan grabbed her hips, lifting her up and bracketing her against the door, working his way inside her, filling her until she cried out, thrusting eagerly into her, her petite body clenched tightly around him, he cupped her ass and delved deeper, it was so raw, he kissed her passionately. She was a heady mix of intelligence and a dirty mind… she was irresistible. He felt her nails digging into his shoulders and he moaned happily, the first tell-tale tremors of her orgasm started to shake through her, vibrating around his cock.

He just wanted her.. with all her silly jokes, sarcasm, smiles, flaws and mistakes. He wanted all of her.

"Veronica…" he gasped as he cupped her face, slowing their rhythm. "Marry me…"


	25. Chapter 25

(Song for this Scene Haley Reinhart – Can't Help Falling in Love with you)

The air deserted her lungs in a rush and her lips parted in shock as Veronica stared at Logan, realising the situation he'd put her in, he became aware of her compromised position, his hand was cupping the side of her face and he was still between her thighs with her pinned against the door, breaking eye contact he buried his head against Veronica's neck as she threaded her fingers through his hair and waited for her response to his proposal, she hadn't said anything yet and now his heart was racing, they were still intimately joined, her petite body was pressed against the door and she was clenched tightly around him, a silken sheath that quivered around his girth. Her legs were wrapped around his waist and he held onto her hips and tried his best not to speak, keeping himself as still as possible. He'd never felt as vulnerable as he did right now.

 _Oh God… what had he done?_

He honestly hadn't meant to ask it now, he hadn't been able to keep himself it though, the moment had been so intimate… so right… now he was terrified of her answer. He'd had plans on asking her and then but he'd been so sure in that moment about his feelings for her that he asked then and there. He'd put everything on the line… he'd put all of it at risk… Could they come back from this if she didn't feel the same?

 _Please Veronica... answer me… I'm yours…_

Her mind was reeling, his body was still moulded around hers, and he filled her as she rested her elbows on his shoulders, soothing her fingers through his hair. Time had slowed until all they could hear were their ragged breaths intermingling as the question hung in the air. Her heart raced; in a few more moments the silence was going to be unbearably awkward.

 _"Marry me…"_

 _Oh God… Was he really asking her that? NOW?_

She could feel his heart pounding against her naked breasts as the adrenalin pumped through her veins. Her body still hummed with irrepressible desire, and his cock shifted inside her even though he tried his best to be still. The door was cold against her back and she breathed in carefully, they'd been in the middle of very hot and steamy - brain melting sex, now he was proposing?

 _How much had he been drinking tonight? Was this just something he'd said in the heat of the moment?_

Logan inhaled her perfume and grasped her closer, listening to the laboured quality of her breathing, her body radiated heat against his broad chest. He'd given in to the emotions and the intensity of the moment, the molten, searing passion consuming them both.

 _Please Veronica… say something…_

Veronica knew she loved him… Surely any moment now he would burst out laughing and declare it was all a joke? But as the moments went by, he didn't, she felt him grip her tighter… he was _nervous_.

 _Logan had just proposed to her… Oh GOD…_

"Ummm Logan?" she said shakily and she heard him swallow hard.

"Yeah?" he asked in a voice not much more than a whisper.

"You should probably put me down…" she told him softly as her pussy squeezed around his shaft again. She wasn't sure he heard her at first, he didn't look at her, he just raised his head from the nape of her neck and looked at the cabin ceiling, she couldn't see his face.

 _I've messed up…_ Logan thought in dismay. _Stupid Stupid Logan…_

"You should put me down…" she repeated "Because when I give you my answer you are liable to Screw this door off its hinges…"

Logan pulled back and looked at her face.

"You mean..?" he asked, his pulse was racing.

 _Was she saying…? Did she mean…?_

"You know how you get when I tell you I love you…" she jested, he'd almost broken the shower the last time.

 _What was she saying? Was that a…?_

"I can only imagine what damage you'd do when I say…."she continued before Logan captured her mouth with his and the kiss was deep, drugging and consuming, he began to thrust into her earnestly, backing them away from the door towards the wall next to them. He kissed her until they were both dizzy with it then pulled back and she panted as her nails dug into his shoulders.

"Bobcat… did you just say..?" he repeated.

 _Please let it be true…_

"Yes… Logan Echolls…" Veronica confirmed as his brown eyes held her gaze, a kind of wonder glimmered there that she'd never seen before.

"You mean you want to…?" he asked again, his eyes were starting to well with happy tears.

 _He wasn't leaving any margin for error here…_

"Yes… I will marry you" she said finally.

"I am so in love with you…" he whispered as he cupped her face and delved into her again, feeling her bodies tell-tale jerk as her hips rocked against him, luxuriating in the sensations as he was coaxing towards that mind-shattering peak, her little mewls of delight as she kissed him back as they melted into each other.

She had agreed to marry him… she was going to be his… always…

 _Some of the best moments of your life were the ones you couldn't tell anyone about… being with her like this… right now… was the best moment in his entire life…_

Veronica lay curled up beside Logan in bed, a little sore and tired but satisfied as he kissed her shoulder affectionately. Rational thought finally making reappearance.

"How am I ever going to explain this to my dad?" Veronica mused. "You better not forget this in the morning or I am going to taser you" she joked.

"I'm never going to forget this.." he promised.

"You sure? Because there's still time to do a fake out with the big ha ha…" Veronica offered.

"You just agreed to give me everything I ever wanted… why would I want to take that back?" Logan told her earnestly.

"It did really catch me by surprise…" Veronica admitted as he turned from her for a moment and reached for his jacket. "I understand about getting caught up in the moment… and if you did its okay…." She promised nervously.

"Veronica… that ring Mac found in Dicks bag?" Logan chuckled as he turned back to her, something in his hand. "It's the ring I bought for you… I've been trying to figure how to ask you for weeks… nothing ever seemed good enough…" he told her as he handed her the small blue jewellery box.

Sheepishly Veronica took it from him and opened it, her mouth fell open in surprise.

"This is…" she declared as she looked at the rose gold engagement ring with a rainbow moonstone setting. She'd been admiring this ring in the jewellery store during their first few weeks at Hearst after that employee diamond fraud case.

"I knew I wanted to ask you then… I bought it after our afternoon when you uh… wore my Hearst Prisoner Uniform… I just couldn't figure out the right time to bring it up…" he confessed.

 _He'd wanted to marry her since then?_

Veronica felt her heart swell and her eyes teared up as she slipped the ring onto her finger, it fit perfectly.

"Damn you Logan…" she cursed. "I swear there's times you make me feel like such a _girl_ …" she sniffed and he kissed her.

"We can watch some Van Damme movies if you need to feel more butch" he joked, wiping the tears of joy from her eyes and cuddled her to him.

"Okay… but just so we are clear… you asked me during sunset on our hike tomorrow" she told him.

"Just as long as your answer is still yes…" he agreed.

"Always…" she promised.


	26. Chapter 26

"You are going to love my meatballs… it's like the only thing I really learned in cooking class… but they are amazing" Dick declared as they wandered around the Hearst student kitchen. They'd just come back from their little impromptu music private gig with Cobra Starship and Daisy's girlfriends band. She was famished! She'd just wanted to order something, but most of the take-out places were closed. He had insisted on stopping into the Sac-n-Pac on their way back to campus.

"I'm a vegetarian…" Mac corrected.

 _Damn she was starving… and possibly eating for two…_

"Yeah… but these are like the best so.." he smiled.

"Dick… they are _meat_ balls…" she repeated, he really could be an adorable big dumb blonde sometimes.

"So?" he asked, puzzled.

"Vegetable-tarian…" she explained.

"I'm using Quorn…" he told her, holding up the box to the Quorn style mince he was using to grind up his meatballs with.

"Come with me…" she declared, grabbing hold of him and dragging him out of the communal kitchen.

"Where we going?" he asked as she dragged him into the co-ed shower room.

"Drop your pants" she ordered.

"Now?" he asked in surprise.

"Yes!" Mac confirmed, immediately without protest he backed into the cubicle as she pulled the curtain over and started to take down his trousers.

 _He loved it when she did this… it was like surprise sex at any hour of the day…_

Mac wasted no time in undressing herself either and they threw their clothes into the waterproof baskets that usually sat in the cubicles before she dragged him into the shower.

"Cindy… God you are so hot when you sex ambush me…" he sighed as she jumped up into his arms and he kissed her neck.

 _It was two am... her dorm supervisor would be doing their rounds soon, they'd have to hurry…_

He gasped as his butt touched the cold tiles and she straddled his lap and he pushed himself into her. The sex was vigorous, energetic and Dick was left a panting wreck by the time she was through with him.

 _She's totally made me her bitch…_

"Get dressed… I want pancakes" she told him simply when she was sated and he'd finished before they finished their shower, borrowing some of the Hearst Athletics Team towels to dry off and without another word she left to return to the kitchen.

 _He was a sucker for a girl who knew what she wanted…_

He got as far as the door before she turned and grabbed him by the shirt and kissed him so passionately he practically swooned, if he'd been a girl, his leg would have done that little rom-com weak-kneed thing.

"Thanks for a great night" she smiled, her arms wrapping around his waist.

He still wasn't used to this more affectionate side of her yet, their earlier days in this relationship had been purely physical and now that they were dating… it's like she had to remind herself not to just rip all his clothes off all the time.

"So no Quornballs?" he asked.

"Not unless you wanna make me a Hornball again by reminding how sweet you are" she teased. "We can make them for lunch tomorrow" she suggested.

"That sounds like you are inviting me to spend the night…" Dick grinned.

"Well… Parker isn't here… and I've no classes tomorrow because it's the weekend… so maybe we could get up early… go down to the beach?" she offered.

He'd been bugging her to go with him and hang down at the beach for days, he wanted to try and get her on a paddle board.

"Cindy… I really really like you right now…" he smiled happily.

"I really really like you too" Mac agreed.

Love was too strong a word this early… besides, she still had another 8 days to go before she could get the blood tests done to find out if she could be expecting a Dick Junior of her own.


	27. Chapter 27

The day had started better than any other day of his life, Veronica lay curled up against his broad chest and he had woken her with leisurely kisses, pulling her petite body against him as he took her again before they would join the rest of their companions for breakfast on the shore.

 _Veronica… his Fiancée._

When they were married… Logan would be able to wake up every day with her like this for the rest of his life.

"What?" she blushed nervously as she caught him staring, her perceptive gaze trying to read his thoughts. Breathing in her delectable scent her kissed along her neck, his fingers tracing the smooth skin on her hip.

"Nothing that isn't going to sound like a cheesy line from one of those atrocious rom-com scripts Connor used to forget at my old place" he grinned.

"Logan Echolls! Are you trying to tell me that smart mouth wants to say something corny?" she chided in mock horror.

"I have no Earthly idea what you are talking about…" he said in faux-innocence, his hand moving down between her inner thigh, his fingers grazing her intimately sending every neuron in her body firing. She shuddered in response; she was so sensitive this morning after all their carnal passion the night before.

"Y-you… are such… a … tease…" she gasped.

 _She felt so warm and soft below his touch… She was exhilarating perfection… God he wanted to make love to her again…_

"I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come back to me..." he admitted.

"Followed me around with a boom box over your head?" Veronica smiled.

"Well I do love the 80s…." he mused as his knee nudged her legs apart again.

"You are incorrigible!" she rasped as he brushed his fingers gently over her clitoris.

"No… just a man helplessly in love with you…" he smiled.

"Helpless?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah…" he nodded, climbing over her until they were skin to skin, body to body, his weight balanced on his arms as he looked down at her.

"I do believe… helpless Logan's usually involve handcuffs… or knee socks…" she provoked him with a smile cupping his face, kissing him deeply and using her ankle to pull him closer, shifting her hip as he filled her, locking them together.

"God Veronica…" he swore as he felt her warmth tighten around him "Now who is the tease?" his voice dropped to a hoarse whisper as he thrust into her, their bodies moving in perfect synchronicity, her nails gripping his shoulders as the sensations began to build, overpowering her ability to concentrate on anything else other than him, his body, his hands, him inside her.

Right here in his arms was the only time she was certain that the solar system was in the right alignment, this is where she began… the cosmos had been rewritten. Logan was her centre of gravity.

 _Her North Star…_

She rubbed her hand down his muscled back, feeling the flex of those masculine shoulders as he undulated against her, increasing his pace. The strange sensation of the ring on her finger, cool against his skin. His brown eyes sparkled with desire as he looked at her, that possessive male glint in them laying claiming on her.

 _Mine…_

He'd worn that look ever since their first kiss, such a caveman Neanderthal response that she usually chastised him under a cool mask of restraint for when she tried to deny the unrelenting sexual power emanating from him when he gazed at her. But here in the bedroom, pinned beneath him? They were lovers… and she did belong to him.

 _No truth had ever scared her more._

The first time she had admitted it to herself, she had felt raw and shaken. Needing someone that much had left her feeling a little like she was betraying herself… that she had failed at the most basic part of self-preservation, she had let him get coiled up within her until he was something fundamental, something vital… something she needed like air or water.

 _Love was a liability… and she'd given Logan Echolls a road map, a satnav and all the tools he'd ever need to dismantle the very core of her…_

As if sensing her momentary fear, he kissed her, wrapping his arms beneath her and hugging her closer. She felt something in her ease and the moment faded away, burned in the inferno that consumed them both. He loved her… he'd still loved her even at her worst… he saved her even from herself…

"I'm yours Mars… always…" he promised, his voice a hot strangled whisper.

Logan watched as her skin flushed that tell-tale vibrant colour, her legs began to shake a little as her hips grinded against his in an instinctive response to the mindless unbearable pleasure. Heat slicked through his veins like rapidly flowing lava. He didn't relent, even when he heard her feverish gasps of excitement, the full force hitting her in a blinding rush. He loved it when she completely came apart like this in his arms, she held nothing back. She gave him everything and he claimed it and then demanded more.

She went limp beneath him, pliant, floaty, a giddy happy grin on her face as she let out a shy giggle. Her hands running down his back, her legs wrapped around his hips, she trailed her hungry gaze along his body, he had a power physique, a sculpted torso. Logan had sexiest arms she had ever seen, strong and protective… she was obsessed with his hands.

 _Mine…_ she thought possessively biting her lip.

He gave her an amused quizzical look.

"How am I supposed to Hike today when you've made me forget how to use my legs?" she asked.

"How am I supposed to let you out of this bed when you keep reminding me about your petite sexy legs?" he countered, a sharp groan escaping his throat as she gyrated beneath him, pulling him in deeper and her pussy clenched his shaft tighter. He was so painfully close…

 _She was so wet… so warm… so tight… His…_

"I love you…" she whispered in his ear and he erupted his release in a wordless cry as he buried his head in the perfect curve between her neck and shoulders.

"That's.. so not.. fair…" he panted, propping himself back up on his elbows, kissing her forehead. "You can reduce me in seconds when you say that…"

"And when I tell you I want you Logan Echolls…" she murmured as she kissed along his jaw. "To lather me all up and screw me in the shower?" she teased, the renewed hum of desire already growing again even though they were still locked together.

"We are going to starve to death if we keep doing this…" he insisted.

"Just wait until the honeymoon…" she grinned.

Logan finished packing away the rest of his things, tucking the cufflinks and tie safely into the box and glanced over his shoulder at Veronica while she pulled on her training shoes. Even in casual jeans and a t-shirt he still wanted to rip her clothes off and haul her back into bed with him.

"Wallace just texted me, Amira and Parker want to go snorkelling… and something about a jet-ski" she told him.

"After breakfast…" he nodded.

"Don't you mean Brunch?" she corrected glancing at her watch.

"Hey… you insisted on dragging me back to bed after our shower" he protested.

"We never made it back to the bed" she grinned, looking at the wet towels still sitting on the cabin floor.

"There's a spa by the beach… we could go for a couples massage and let the rest of them scuba dive and meet them for the sightseeing tour afterwards?" he suggested.

"Joel and Zoe have booked for all of us to have dinner at the Catalina Casino Ballroom tonight" Veronica told him "and… I have booked us to try that Airport in the Sky… the skyline tour? "Pilot experience and everything…" she smiled shyly.

"More surprises?" he said incredulously.

"I think yours definitely won out there buddy…" she said staring at the ring on her finger and he wrapped a hand around her waist pulling her closer to give her a kiss when her phone rang again.

Lethal Weapons theme tune rang out, her dad's personalized ringtone.

"Hey Sheriff" she said awkwardly, stepping out of his embrace and Logan chuckled silently at her, she always got so nervous and uptight when speaking to her dad if she was physically near him, even if he wasn't even there.

 _He's a brilliant Detective… he can sense these things!_ Her eyes scolded silently as he tried to pull her back against his body.

"Hey honey… I'm sorry to call you during your trip…" he said sombrely.

"What's wrong?" she said, the edge in her voice and stiffening of her shoulders made Logan stop his playful antics and look at her, regarding the change in her posture as the carefree attitude slipped underneath something harder. Her business poise returning immediately.

Years of working with her father as a business partner, a colleague… a fellow detective. They had their own language, a symmetry that flowed between them when they got caught up in an investigation. Whatever was going on between the two of them over this conversation… it was serious. She visibly paled and her entire body froze.

"When?" she asked but Logan couldn't hear the other side of the call. "No… yes… I'm fine… I'll be home tonight" she told him before she hung up.

"Everything okay?" Logan questioned as he ran a hand comfortingly along her shoulders.

"There was a shooting last night…" she explained quietly and he felt something tighten in his stomach.. something in her eyes told him this wasn't just your run of the mill Sheriff's Department investigation into a senseless act of violence. It was personal.

"A body was found on campus… Weevil's dead"


	28. Chapter 28

Logan looked warily at Veronica unsure of what exactly he should say, he had offered to hire the small plane from Catalina Island to take them back to Neptune but she had insisted on joining Wallace and the others on the mainland instead.

 _Weevil Navarro was dead._

He had turned it over a hundred times in his thoughts. It still didn't feel real. First Sheriff Don Lamb had died in the line of duty just days ago, and now one of his old classmates, his old Rival, former nemesis-turned-ally. Probably one of the only guys who'd known Lilly the way he had, was gone.

 _Veronica hadn't even cried yet…_

The two of them had always been close, it was a connection that had used to make him jealous, her father had always said she had a thing for irredeemable bad boys… until he realized that what she felt for Weevil was closer to something siblings share, while a lot of their relationship had been sort of mutually opportunistic, there's such was a respect between Weevil and the pixie-sized sleuth. Eli "Weevil" Navarro, former head of the PCH biker gang had been one of her truest friends.

He'd been the furthest thing you could get from Logan, he had tattoos, he rode motorcycles, and he was very much from the quote-unquote wrong side of the tracks but as an individual, he was an intriguing bastion of contradictions, boasting a rough demeanour but betraying a hidden gentleness. He'd always had Veronica's back, even way back when Logan hadn't.

 _He'd been a great guy… despite burning down my house…_

It made Logan ache to think that… in a different set of circumstances, Weevil should have been the true love of Lilly's life, his lack of socio-economic privilege is certainly what stopped them from becoming something more, he was the ultimate product of his environment, the corruption of Neptune.

Logan watched his fiancée as she picked up the bottles of water from the pop up stand and continued with him on their hike. They'd only heard the news about an hour ago, her silence troubled him.

"Veronica.." he said gently as she pushed the small purse into her backpack. He felt helpless, he wanted to call in reinforcements… or Hell… have her sit down for even five minutes.

"I can't Logan…"she said quietly. "I saw him two days ago. This doesn't make any sense!"

According to Acting Sheriff Keith Mars, her father, Weevil's body had been found in the basement of Hearst University, near the incinerator of the heating system. There had been an attempt to force the body into the furnace itself but whoever had tried wasn't strong enough to get him inside.

 _Bodies tended to be heavier than people gave them credit for._

He had been found shot three times in the chest and covered in soot; the loud clanging coming from the furnace had alerted several students in the computer labs who complained about the noise when it was investigated by the buildings maintenance supervisor. Someone unfamiliar with the incinerator had attempted to burn some clothes, some leather gloves, and bloodied clothing. Working theory at the moment is they must have been caught in the process by Weevil and decided to cover their tracks.

Logan had called Dick to get some more information from those on campus about what was circulating; no one seemed to know much, and Keith Mars couldn't move on the bloodied clothing until forensics came back. Educated guess said that it probably had something to do with Dean Odell's alleged suicide.

"We can go back…" he offered.

"No… I'm not ready. He's still going to be gone even if we go back now…" she sighed as she stepped into his embrace. Pulling him tighter to her.

 _This morning had been so perfect…_

"It's not like you to avoid a case.." he pointed out.

 _She hadn't even told Wallace yet…_

His thoughts flitted to Mac, she would know by now. He wasn't sure how close she was to Weevil, but he knew that there had been a few parties in the Dorms that he had attended there with Veronica.

"This isn't a case… it's the death of another one of my friends, and right now… I need OUT… I need space, a lot of space to…." She gulped in a large breath and tried her best to fight back the flood of emotion starting to claw its way up inside her chest. "I feel like… I'm going to have a panic attack, like I'm going to rupture at the seams… and there's no air… Logan… I can't… breathe…" she cried as she lost the thread of her speech and the tight control she'd been holding onto finally snapped and she began gasping for air as tears filled her azure blue eyes. He pulled her closer to him, his strong arms enveloping her and holding her close to his chest.

 _There it was… the inevitable crash as the reality sunk in._ He'd been waiting for it, she was just so damn strong. She. Just. Wouldn't. Break. Interacting with someone who's sad and hurting was always awkward; usually Logan avoided these kinds of emotional depths with people… dealing with his inability to help Duncan after Lilly's murder. Logan always thought he was terrible at it. But with her… he wanted to be there for her, and strengthen their relationship, but it's hard to know how to act and what to say. "There, there, it's okay." Just didn't feel like it was going to cut it. He didn't have the words to fix this, so he said nothing, he just hauled her as tightly against him as he could and held her, gently stroking her hair until her breathing calmed and kissed her forehead.

Veronica sank into his embrace and inhaled the calming scent of Logan, ocean and soap.

 _Weevil was gone leaving a vacuum that could only be filled by him… another piece of Lilly was gone…_

She didn't need him to say anything, the arms around her told her everything that she needed to hear, he wasn't going to let her deal with this alone. She could fall apart here, and he would put her back together again. Some people were just written on your soul in permanent ink... and Logan Echolls was on hers. He was the perfect mix of everything that she had ever craved.

 _Forever, mine, with me._ Falling in love with him wasn't something she had expected… but it's something she couldn't have prevented even if she'd tried.

Her arms were wrapped around his waist, her fingers gripping the back of his hoodie, and the tiredness relaxed her shoulders.

"We can head back if you want.." his voice said softly.

"The beach where we are supposed to be meeting Piz and Zoe is just down at the bottom of the next trail" she replied quietly, shaking her head. They could have taken a taxi from the harbour, they both knew that but he understood now that she'd needed some time away from all the questions to gather herself.

 _Time to process._

 _She got a few text messages and stopped to read them._

 ** _1\. Wallce: Got a call from Mac… are you okay?_**

 _ **2\. Wallace: Just spoke to your dad… where are you?**_

"What do you want to do now?" he asked quietly.

"Go on living? That's what people do when someone they love dies… only I'm planning on getting the bastards who did this" Veronica replied.


	29. Chapter 29

Wallace watched as his girlfriend Amira and Parker towelled off on the beach and Joel Galen, the current object of Parkers affection brought him a beer. Hanging out with an older dude did have some advantages.

"If you guys need to get back today, I can have the Captain send someone with my Yacht" Joel told him sympathetically.

"Thanks man, appreciated" Wallace replied gratefully as he took the pint that was offered to him.

"Veronica's father is Sheriff?" Joel questioned.

"Acting Sheriff" he corrected. Keith Mars had been the only other candidate to run for the post during the last election, but the controversy surrounding the bus crash that had claimed the lives of 6 of his classmates, the new journalism teacher and the bus driver had hurt the elder Mars's chance at victory when Sheriff Lamb implied that it had been caused by a drunk driver with whom Keith had been lenient.

"And this Weevo character… he was a friend of yours?" Joel asked.

"A former classmate… from high school… he was Veronica's friend" Wallace replied as he followed Joel's gaze to the two girls applying sun cream to each other as they got out of the water and reached for their dresses.

"Nasty business" Joel lamented as he sipped his beer. Wallace regarded the older man, 6 foot tall, and a genuine American blue eye, his sandy hair was the opposite of his younger sister Zoe's dark curls. His outfit screamed thousand-dollar-a-plate just for lunch and from what he could tell, he seemed to be captivated by the blond in front of them. At least for the moment, he knew that Parker was a pretty easy going girl, but everything the girl had been through in recent months made Wallace feel protective of her. She was part of his little Hearst family, and he didn't want some billionaire playboy thinking that she was just some toy for him to use for the weekend. No matter how hospitable he and his sister had been to them over the weekend so far.

"Speaking of business… you are hosting an event tonight?" Wallace enquired. It had briefly been mentioned this morning that the tuxedo suits that they had been measured for last night when they came on board would be ready for them at dinner later that evening to attend a Ball at the Catalina Casino.

"Oh… it's just a meeting of the Senior Board of Galen Industries and Associates… they are usually pretty dull, so Zoe and I always make it a point to invite as many non-company people along as well. But of course, all things considered, if you need to leave, we can certainly make those arrangements" Joel assured him.

"I haven't had time to speak to Veronica about it yet" Wallace admitted. The radio silence from the junior Mars was worrying him. He knew how close that Weevil and Veronica were, and he'd only found out after Mac had called him for an update.

 _The people in my social circle really need to work on their communication… and possibly invest in some bullet proof vests._

"Zoe sent me a text while I was at the bar, Veronica and Logan are joining her and Piz over by the airfield for Brunch" Joel explained as he waved over at Parker who had just smiled at him.

"The airfield?" Wallace asked.

"Yes… My sister fancies herself Amelia Earhart. Zoe has had her pilot's license since she was 18, they were going to do a tour of the island, and give Logan a few lessons" Joel told him quietly. At that revelation Wallace almost dropped his beer laughing despite himself.

 _Yes… Zoe Galen would eat Piz alive…_

"Piz… in an airplane?" he scoffed, the surreal factoid pulled him out of his sombre musing.

"Who is in a plane?" Parker asked as the girls approached them.

"Please tell me it's not snakes…" Amira joked as she curled her arms around Wallace's waist and kissed his cheek.

"Just telling Wallace here about Zoe's piloting exploits" Joel smiled as he handed Parker a drink, although Wallace did notice that the mimosa was accepted gratefully but soon placed untouched on the small table beside them.

 _She still didn't accept drinks from guys…_

"Surely that's not the best idea after all those shots last night?" Amira asked.

"I don't think they are actually going to make it up into the air today… considering" Joel told her simply, although his thoughts were on whether or not he should be calling his best friend Barry Silva to see if Air Marshal Nick O'Connell was on duty today, his sister had a complicated on again off again relationship with the man. It was honestly nauseating. Most people just thought his sister was just a spoiled socialite roughing it for the notoriety. He didn't understand why she couldn't just focus on work or get herself a nice uncomplicated guy like that Slosh Piznarski fellow. He just hoped she could refrain from spoiling his little tryst this weekend with his new found friend or that he'd have to deal with his meddling ex this evening and a slew of dysfunctional family members.

"Considering?" Parker questioned. The girls hadn't been told about Weevil yet; they had been in the middle of a scuba lesson when Wallace had received the call.

"The murder" he explained.

"There's been a murder?" Amira asked.

"The Deans murder? Or a New Murder?" Parker added.

"There's more than one? Are you sure you don't attend Homicidal College instead of Hearst?" Joel asked incredulously. So far this new move to Neptune was seemingly more and more like wrong step on his families part. In the few months since they had been here, his new car had been vandalised by a group of young teenage bikers, he'd had his company phone stolen and there had been that awful incident with that the night he'd spent with that vanity fair reporter who had seduced his sister and extorted their family for a payoff or he was going to release a tell all and video.

A new job, a new city and a new lease on life seems perfect, but it's been far from that, at least until he had met the resident pint-sized sleuth who had retrieved the stolen company phone and helped to get hard drive from the reporters hotel room. If Veronica hadn't already been taken… Joel would have gladly offered to give her a year off college for a world tour on his cruise ship. The mere scrape of a girl had come to his rescue.

"I had a call from Mac while you guys were gone" Wallace sighed as he kissed Amira on the head; he knew from their time together that his girlfriend and Eli Navarro were friends. He'd been in their same year at school but spent some jail time with her older brother after graduation. His cousin Mateo Lobos was a delivery driver for the Bombay Gardens restaurant her family owned. "Weevil was found dead this morning."

"Oh God…" Parker gasped, reaching for her drink, suddenly needing something to wash away the bile rising in her stomach. She knew the maintenance guy from the many times he'd been around the dorms and campus with Mac. He'd walked them to her car a few times and had helped to throw out some drunken frat guys from her building shortly after the rapes had started. He was a good guy. She hadn't known him until before Veronica had asked him to keep an eye on her and Mac, he'd been sweet and protective. "Is Mac okay?" she asked. Her roommate had been in high school with him.

"She's in shock" he told her quietly as he hugged his girlfriend to his chest.

"It's so horrible…" Amira murmured as he rubbed his hands down her shoulder comfortingly.

"Where's Veronica?" Parker asked.

"With Zoe and Piz" Wallace replied simply. He wasn't expecting an answer to his messages for a while from her; emotional availability and Veronica went together like go together like ham and vanilla ice cream. She was with Logan… it was the only reason he hadn't taken off in search for his best friend. She would surface when shew as ready, her deliberately cultivated unapproachable aura fastened to her, detached and controlled. Ready to get retribution and go on a hunt for the culprits, and when she did, he'd be right there to help her. Wariness made his neck prickle and he watched as Joel moved a tendril of blond hair out of Parkers face and tucked it behind her ear.

Amira looked at the small bag of Golf clubs that Joel had loaned him and gave him a small smile. She was quiet, closed off, one of the kids on the school bus last year had been one of her friends, so the senseless violence of losing someone else they knew, felt ugly and alien. It filled their minds with unresolved questions.

"I spoke to Sheriff Mars" Wallace told her quietly.

"Veronica's dad?" Parker asked.

"Yeah.. they won't have more information until the Forensics' come back tomorrow.." Wallace told her. Although he didn't explain that it meant that Veronica would probably use that as a reason not to cut their trip short. The too-blunt spoken, too-perceptive Mars Family rarely made a move unless there was a purpose or a method to the madness, since there were no connections to be found until the answers arrived, he knew that both the formidable duo would be in agreement to wait until the gossip and speculation had died down.

"Lots of people drink Green Tea Coconut Water" Emerson Hartfield laughed as he returned from the sand dunes with his golf bag.

"I still think it makes you a sadistic bastard" Miller Corban complained as he tossed the beverage onto the small table and nodded in greeting at Joel, his eyes leisurely appraising the young women further down the beach.

"Who is ready to go to lunch?" Emerson asked the group.

"Glad you care more about your stomach than me" Miller scoffed.

"You will appreciate it when you lose a few pounds and that all American Laker girl finally agrees to go on that date with you" Emerson laughed, his deep baritone filled the space.

"Like I'd even have to try, her screw me eyes beg for sex every time I walk by" Miller retorted.

"Keep dreaming" Emerson told his friend as he had the decency to at least look a little apologetic for their language when Parker gaped at them.

"The proof is in her sodden cotton panties" Miller said as he tossed his towel on his bag and headed to the bar.

"Wow.." Amira said wide eyed.

"Miller Corban ladies and gentlemen… the epitome of narcissism" Joel sighed in embarrassment.

"You think he's bad now… wait until you see him in a Tux" Emerson warned.


	30. Chapter 30

Mac felt like an addicted crackhead as she fixated her gaze on Dick's lips again, he was lying on the bed beside her watching the DVD he had brought over on her laptop and her body relaxed a fraction. There was an alarming need building after losing someone you cared about that made you have this strong urge to do something life affirming. Maybe it was the need to find something reassuring after all the chaos surrounding them over the last few days that made her find comfort in the fact that his taste stayed the same, and his lips were just as soft and his hands were just as strong. Breaking was necessary sometimes so you could rebuild yourself.

Unable to stand it she pushed the computer onto the spare seat beside her bed and straddled him, her hands reaching under his shirt and kissed his neck. His eyebrows shot up in surprise when she sat back up and her gaze meshed with his but he could see the need for distraction in her eyes. Nodding he reached for the button on her jeans while she pulled off her Jacob Lee Concert t shirt to reveal her black bra, her grey eyes running over his body hungrily as her arms feverishly encircled his waist as he rolled them over until she was beneath him, trailing kisses along the warm sanctuary between his neck and shoulders.

He gripped her jeans and pulled them down over her hips before discarding them onto the floor, tearing his own shirt off over his head and captured her mouth with his own, clinging to her with drugging rapturous kisses. This felt different, he wrapped her legs around his waist, he hadn't removed his jeans yet but the mini-frissons of heat between her legs from the friction alone was overtaking her senses.

She'd been so wrong about him all this time… looking into his eyes… Dick Casablanca's was someone she needed as much as she needed her next breath, her fingers threaded through his tousled blond hair as she pulled him closer to her. Whimpering with need as his greedy hands found her breasts in her black lace bra and squeezed them.

Dick felt like an explosive device, primed and ready to go off as he felt the heat of her press against the bulge in his jeans. His Cindy was a soft invitation into madness, his computer hacking goddess of heavenly corruption. They had both barely spoken since he'd called Logan to check if he any of those guys had needed a ride back to the Neptune Grand or campus later. They hadn't really discussed the recent word about campus of the murder of Weevil Navarro.

"I'm fine…" had been her quiet reply before she had hacked into the Sheriff's department police logs and the country morgue office and set up some computer related wizardry for CCTV and access codes using some sort of algorithms he didn't quite understand. She had a natural proclivity to be clever, and a lot of it went over his head sometimes. He'd busied himself with making her those Quorn meatballs he'd promised and brought her back some energy drinks and red-vines. She seemed to like those when she was on the computer for long periods of time, her lips always tasted like those cherry flavours. He didn't know what to say, so he just did his best to be quiet and take care of her.

He'd never had a serious girlfriend other than Madison, but something about Cindy made him want to be better. The space between her neck and shoulders, where her dark hair with the coloured strips in it had ensnared him, that sugary feminine scent created this protective ball to swell in his chest and he kissed along her collarbone as he pulled off her bra and cupped her ass with his other hand. She writhed beneath him and he couldn't help but revel in how this wasn't like their other times when it felt like their souls had grown teeth and were scratching and clawing at each other until the furious hunger between them was sated.

 _Her lips were made for poetry and sin and he was going to make love to her…_

Mac couldn't help but note the contrast between the two of them, his deeply bronzed tan, the golden lights in his blond hair, his wide shoulders gliding under her hands, the feel of his muscular torso and skin pressing against own, the graze of his teeth as he nibbled at the sensitive spot on her neck while his hands reached into her panties and ran a finger along her sex. She felt like a ray of light bending to his will as he played with her, her toes curling as her body moved like a wave beneath his touch.

"Richard..." she gasped urgently. She didn't want to think right now, she just wanted to feel… and God the sensation of his talented fingers were all she could think about right now. His blue eyes surveyed her reactions with a warm worshipful gaze that felt like it was going to steal her sanity, he as her sexy velvet-voiced millionaire lover. She'd used to joke about the 09er groupies who used to chase the playboys in Neptune High like Dick and Logan, always writing them off as desperados who had read one too many harlequin novels but now it was her reality.

Possibly knocked up with her millionaire lover's baby and jubilantly drunk on his touch.

 _Would he still want her if she was?_

He plunged his tongue into her mouth and she moaned and allowed his intoxicating masculine taste to override worries. The first tremors shook her body as he continued his teasing, he groaned in appreciation as he felt the trembling as she fluttered around his fingers.

"I know it's messed up… but I can't get enough of you" he admitted, the hypnotic rumble of his voice as he moved with a lithe fluid grace and pulled her panties down her legs. He tasted the slope of her shoulders like she was a fine delicacy. Her hands made quick work of opening his jeans and pushing them down his thighs, he chuckled as her feet pushed them the rest of the way down to his ankles.

 _His impatient little minx._

His eyes took on a focus, a hard edged gleam that was almost predatory.

"You're mine Cindy…" he told her as she gazed up at his possessive expression, his hands settling on her hip as he pressed himself against her entrance and sank into her welcoming body slowly, no man had ever made her feel so acutely aware of his claim on her body, and the look on his face told her he meant every word. She was used to taking care of herself and has long ago accepted that if anything bad was going to happen, it was going to happen to her, getting switched at birth could give a girl a complex like that… or there was the whole mass murderer boyfriend issue… but with him… it felt like Dick Casablancas was the good luck she was supposed to wait her whole life to find. He wasn't the moronic douche-waffle she'd always thought he was while she was in high school.

"You won't want any other man after I've finished with you" he promised with a kiss as he buried himself inside her to the hilt, grabbing each of her legs behind the knees and pulled them up around his waist, the position burying him inside her even deeper. His teeth captured her lower lip and he playfully nibbled it as he began a slow deep rhythm as he began to thrust into her. ""Life hurts. And if you let me… we can slow down and I'll make sure we are going to be okay."

She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer as she rocked her hips against him, he growled in approval as he felt her body clench tighter around him, a fire building inside him as he increased their pace.

"Oh God…" she gasped, a gorgeous full throated sound as his pelvis rubbed against her clitoris.

"Don't worry baby… it's going to get better" he assured her as he kissed along her neck and he felt her begin to shake. "I'll push you over that edge. And then I want to fuck you the way I need to" he whispered before she felt his teeth bite into her neck as he cupped her breasts in his hands. She wasn't used to this side of him, aside from the first time he kissed her in the elevator; she'd always been the one to initiate things between them… now he was in control.

 _She was so wet and hot and responsive beneath him…_

Every part of her felt alive, calibrated to drive him wild with need as she surrendered, trailing her own kisses along his unshaven neck, a slow seductive ballet highlighted with breathy moans and panted whispers as she encouraged him but he kept building her to the edge and then holding her there… refusing to grant her the release her body so desperately craved. "Tell me Cindy… I want to hear it…" he commanded. "You know exactly what I'm doing, what you're feeling, and I won't stop until your legs are shaking and the neighbours know my name, but you have to tell me what I want to hear… I can keep you squirming and wet…" he warned as he delved torturously slowly into her, instead of the hard thrusts her body seemed to need. "We haven't spent all this time getting to know each other, driving each other crazy, to have a quick fuck and go our separate ways. You need to understand, Baby, now I've made love to you, you're mine."

His breath was hot against her ear, and the possessiveness in his tone both shocked and thrilled her. Nothing about Dick Casablancas was dominant or the stereotypical alpha male, he was self-confessed beta-bro content as long as he got to play wing man and fuck 'em and chuck 'em with the rest of his fraternity brothers, to hear him claim her so outright made her shiver.

"Aren't you getting bored of me yet?" she panted. It was secretly one of her biggest fears, that he would just wake up one morning and realize that he missing out on the multitudes of other women who would throw themselves at his trust fund.

 _God what was with the teasing?_

"Yes, I'm awfully bored of you needing way too much sex." He grinned at her sarcastically as he took her nipple into his mouth, holding her hips in place and making her feel all of him filling every inch of her as he moved against her in a slow grind.

"Fucking Christ… Okay… Dick… baby, I'm yours… I need you now… please… please stop playing with me… or I'm going to have to find a sex partner that requires batteries" she pleaded.

"Say it again.." he whispered as he held himself up on his forearms, his blue eyes pinning her in place as she gazed up into his fallen angels face.

"I'm yours…" she repeated as he began a slow steady rhythm, glorious insanity, insatiable hunger devouring them both as his control snapped and he finally gave in and began to thrust in faster, harder, he wanted to watch her come unhinged, have her melt into him until she was boneless, limbless and he had owned every inch of her sweet beautiful body. He ran a hand along her thighs as she finally threw her head back against the pillows as her orgasm shook her, a delight to watch, he was going to make her do that again, and again, several times in multiple positions.

His brain became a scorching hot mess as he felt her nails digging into his back, the aftershocks of her release as twitched around his cock and he finally gave in and he collapsed into the pillows beside her, clutching her body tightly to his, sweat misting his blond hair. She had been ready to crawl into his bones but he knew now that this curvy techno girl had her handprints on his heart, she wasn't getting away from him now.

Losing Weevil Navarro may not have been a personal loss to him, he'd barely known the guy but it had emphasized just how important it was to know what you wanted from life, because fuck it was short. He hadn't much in his future sorted out, his mother had her plans for him and his dad could go find a bridge as far as Dick as concerned… but one thing he did know for sure… he wanted Cindy Mackenzie, and now he had her, he'd be damned if he let the best thing in his life get away.

A/N so as you have been aware, I haven't updated any of my fics in a few weeks, I've been busy reading, babysitting and generally trying to get some inspiration, sometimes I need a little break.

Been reading a few too many adult romance novels... I'm not sure if you can tell by this chapter *sarcasm*

please do take 2 mins to review, I'm trying out new styles lately and it helps to know what works and what doesn't.

Personal shout out to Kayte76, I do enjoy your feedback lol, so here's some less emotions and some of the good stuff for ya. Before the insanity starts again of course.


	31. Chapter 31

The smell of sweat and bodies was almost overpowering in the heat, even in the dead of March the humidity was more powerful than usual, after their hike, moving through the human current ahead of them was more difficult than Veronica would have liked. Logan seemed to have momentarily forgotten that unlike him, she possessed the legs with length more suited to a child, and he was a good few feet ahead of her moving towards the café where they were supposed to meet with Zoe and Piz.

Those few feet were enough to encourage some of the other tourists to swell in front of her, separating them, although she could still see him, at 6 ft 2, he wasn't hard to miss, but she knew that when he briefly turned to glance at her over his shoulder that it would appear as if the crowd had just swallowed her up.

They didn't part like the red sea instinctively for her like they did for him. Logan was used to walking around the world like he owned the entire street, the sun and the very ground he walked on, an inherent sense of confidence that was written on his face even if he was never aware of it. It made people move out of his way, and caused them to gravitate towards him as well. There was something magnetic about her fiancé, the people around him kept a safe distance though. She ran her gaze admiringly over his broad shoulders, his khaki coloured cotton shirt pulled over his back, like silk over marble.

As if sensing her absence he turned around and she saw his cinnamon-brown eyes searching for her, she noticed the moment he found her, the relaxation removing the tension from his shoulders.

"There are so many #GrowingUpShort jokes just waiting to burst out of my mouth right now… the restraint is painful…" he teased as he held his hand out for her.

"You joke about putting me on your shoulders and I will kick you in the shin" she smiled sweetly as she took it.

"Is that anyway to talk to your betrothed?" he smiled back, wrapping an arm protectively over her shoulders as a larger crowd exited a tourist bus and headed for the beach. Looking ahead she saw the familiar brown hair as Zoe stood up to wave and attract their attention from the tables sitting outside the café.

 _Although, now that he thought about it, he probably should ask her what Weevils Death meant for telling people about their engagement._

He scolded himself for the thought, this wasn't the time to be thinking of such things. Someone bumped into him and instinctively he checked his wallet was still here, pickpockets were rife this time of year.

"Us short girls are mean because we are closer to Hell" she retorted as she squeezed his hand. Their silly banter was a welcome distraction from the cold, ruthless mechanical whisper trying to lull her back into an unfeeling cocoon, the one she had grown to hide all the pain she was feeling so the stress didn't overwhelm her, but that was the girl from her Senior year, the one who had pulled away from everyone and tried to stand on her own. The girl who had almost gotten herself killed on that roof top by Cassidy Casablanca's.

Her heart hammered, Logan had saved her that night, he had been her comfort, he was her match, her friend, her lover. Her white knight, no matter how badly she had treated him… he still loved her. He deserved better than for her to yield into old habits, they would get justice for Weevil… but she wouldn't do it at the expense of her future with him.

She wouldn't get lost in her Vendetta against some faceless opponent this time to the detriment of her relationship with Logan. Yes, she was going to war against the secrets and lies in Neptune, but she still had to give him the peace and contentment that he has earned. He didn't deserve to share a bed with someone cold, collected and detached, someone who's every move was measured, who felt the need to case the restaurant, run background checks on the staff and doubted if the cook preparing her meal could be trusted. Lilly had already been her Ghost, those kids from the bus, now Dean Odell and Weevil had joined the collateral damage that Veronica Mars left in her wake.

One day, all the tragedy would be a far gone unpleasant memory and she could be the girl who had woke up this morning, wrapped in cool linen sheets in the arms of the man who loved her, thinking up excuses to tell her friends so she could spend those few precious hours curled up in his embrace. The idyllic cove around them with the tourists who were patiently boarding the small tour boats for the whale watching trips looked out of place, overly polished for the news she had been given today.

Logan was still treating her like she was going to break like glass, losing Weevil wasn't like losing anyone else. She wasn't going to break, what she felt now, was anger. She knew that Eli Navarro had been searching for a greater purpose to his life, he had been playing bodyguard for the McKinley Dorm female dorm room after hours for the last few months since Parkers rape. He had taken Dean Odell's alleged suicide as a personal mission, he been as suspicious about the circumstances as she had been.

Maybe he'd gotten hurt playing detective? If he had… that meant that she was partly responsible.

 _Oh Weev's… what were you doing?_

They crossed the small street and Zoe Galen pulled Veronica into a tight hug.

"Oh my gosh! I just spoke to Joel… we heard about your friend, are you okay?" she asked, her grey eyes wide with concern.

Logan observed at the scene in front of him, his petite girlfriend embracing the taller dark haired girl while the other two people sitting at the table shifted around to look up at them, he recognised Piz immediately, seated awkwardly, unsure if he should be standing to hug her afterwards, and then there was Georgina Bourque, the daughter of the local Casino, Logan remembered her from far too many drunken nights during his Senior year in Neptune High when he had been at the Neptune Galaxy Resort Hotel. She gave him a slow smile in recognition. He heard Veronica mutter something about being fine but tired after their hike as they took their seats and he pulled a seat from the table next to them before joining them, sitting beside her.

"Mr Echolls. How are you?" she purred, twisting a strand of her red hair around her finger, he noted Piz's watchful expression, he really hoped Veronica didn't read too much into her flirtation, she didn't know that this was just Georgina's nature. So many of their issues caught fire and drowned them when the simple solution of just communicating would have sufficed. But neither of them was ever willing to cross the line before.

"Famished" he smiled in polite response.

"Are you sure you don't want us to fuel up the Yacht and have it take you back to the mainland?" Zoe pressed, her large almond shaped eyes full of sympathy.

"Really that's not necessary" she replied, shaking her head, entwining her fingers with Logan's, curling closer to him. He smelled like home.

"She's a determined little miss" Logan reassured her.

Zoe wanted to grab both of them and pull them in and give them a hug. She was fond of them; she had laughed at their banter and was humbled by their easy way with each other. They reminded her so much of how things were with Nick O'Connell, she knew what it was to have such intense feelings for each other and when at first, things didn't work out between them, when they get their second chance, it was downright amazing! She had met Veronica during her recent break up with Logan, she had seemed so lost, preoccupied with work.

They had started out as a simple business arrangement, but a few bottles of wine later after a stake out and some heartfelt confessions about loving someone from another world and how being too stubborn could cost you everything that mattered.

"You can't love someone in isolation, that's not love… if you want it… you gotta put on your best big girls pants and go and get it" Zoe had scolded her. She would have went to Nick if her father hadn't threatened to disinherit her for the love match… he didn't feel that a lowly Air Marshall was good enough for his prized daughter.

Zoe had been so grateful that she had taken the case for her after that Vanity Fair reporter Norman Phipps had posed as a wealthy investor at one of her events, charmed his way her into bed and then had secretly videotaped the encounter. Her own company and product line outside of the main family business had just been about to go public… it had been a mistake that had almost cost her millions. Not to mention the humiliation. Not to mention the financial freedom that she had craved so she could claim the man that she loved.

She considered Veronica a good friend, the thought that she was hurting like this made her feel fiercely protective. Even if her father did disapprove with her and her brothers association with the offspring of the Murderous Aaron Echolls. Glancing down at their joined hands, she noted the rose gold band on Veronica's ring finger.

"She would have to be to keep up with you Logan" Georgina giggled.

"She's as clever as the devil and twice prettier" Piz offered, as he glanced at the petite blond admiringly.

 _Thank God Veronica had taken her advice to go and give them another chance… she could have ended up with someone like Piz… and if the last few hours had been any indication … that would have bored the shit out of Veronica._

"With a killer smile as her weapon of choice" Logan nodded, doing his best to ignore the urge to punch Piz in his toothy grinning face.

"Ah the Patron Saint of Passive Aggressive Retribution" Veronica quipped "Who is exceedingly hungry" she said as she reached for a menu. She knew everyone was going to insist on heading back, she held the laminated menu in her hand, trying to take it in, tapping the corner of the page, debating her options.

She wanted to stay here, with the sun on her face and Logan by her side, the shops and market squares were alive with life, transports blazed along the water, at night, this place had looked like a crown of stars on the horizon. Going back would be acknowledging that she was losing, that the world had taken something else from her. A surge of emotion left an aching occlusion in her throat, she had never felt smaller than she did after that phone call this morning. She closed her eyes and did a silent body count.. one more friend on the pile. Part of her had always loved Weevil, but a career criminal and a detective made for strange bedfellows.

 _At least we have a decent Sheriff now… the king is back on his throne… what happened to Weevil was not her fault…_

Although, she could almost feel that poison as it drip fed into her mind as Georgina suggested they get something from the bakery across the street if there was nothing that they wanted.


	32. Chapter 32

(song for this scene Mr Probz - Space for two)

It was as hot as Hades, at least that's how Mac felt as she lay panting on her boyfriend Dick Casablancas' bed wearing the blindfold as he trailed an ice cube over her flushed skin. He knew what she wanted… but she would have to plead with him a little bit more before he gave it to her.

"Please… please… please…" she begged as she tugged on the handcuffs holding her hands above her head and writhed against the delicious sensations the vibrating panties he'd made her wear as soon as they'd gotten to his apartment in the Neptune Grand Hotel.

The RA for the McKinley female dorm room had 'requested' that he return to his own accommodation's after several noise complaints around 7pm. Over-caffeinated Pre-med students tended to get cranky when you interrupted their cram sessions.

Still too shaken from the recent murder of their former classmate Weevil Navarro to spend the night alone, he had lured her over to his apartment with the promise of dinner and a high speed internet connection… what she had gotten was a quick snack and hauled off back to the nearest bed to continue their sex session in his fortress of privacy. His roommate Logan Echolls was still in Catalan Island with the rest of her friends, so they had the place entirely to themselves, their little Hearst Nancy Drew Gang would be dealing with the murder mystery when they returned. He didn't reply to her pleading but she knew even without looking that an arrogant smirk would be showing on that beautiful angelic face of his shadowed with stubble. He wasn't his usual clean shaven party boy self and the feel of his unkempt whiskers brushing against her neck as he kissed her made her body tremble beneath his touch.

He wasn't going to stop teasing her until he had been satisfied, this new side to him was one that she hadn't expected at all.

"Richard… please… I think I've learned my lesson..." she pleaded, she was so **_close_**...

 _She needed release… she needed to feel him inside her… what had happened to her pretty words from less than an hour ago that when she had declared that just because she had agreed they were definitely an item that she wouldn't be taking orders from him and doing as she was told?_

He had started this particular brand of sensual torment after enduring her little speech during their room service 40 minutes ago, when she had tried to lecture him with the point that although, technically she had agreed that she was His… a person didn't belong to another person and that his assumption that her body was now his to own just because he had called Dibs... that it wasn't possible to control a person like that, before crossing her arms in a gesture of pure defiance. He had wordlesslydisappeared into the master bedrooms bathroom and returned with a pair of handcuffs from God knows where and carried her over his shoulder into his room. Throwing his weight around was never his style… at least it never used to be… but he was going to make a definite point.

 _A person can't be owned by another person like that… A statement which he flat out rejected and proceeded to prove her wrong. Over and over again…_

"Do you, now?" he teased as he adjusted the settings on the remote and intensified the pulsing between her legs. She had tried to deny him, this thing between them with her haughty disregard, and the whole you-mean-nothing-to-me disappearing after their hook-ups, but her body couldn't lie. He could make her beg for mercy, scream his name and have her addicted to his touch.

"Oh God…" she moaned as came apart with wild abandon, her lips parted with a passionate look on her face that blew his mind.

"The only firewalls you have to worry about tonight is the hot ones between your legs currently aching for me…" he told her as he cupped her breasts and took her nipple greedily into his mouth. "You're mine… and I'm not sharing you with anyone…"

"Oh… only you… only ever you…" she promised as she felt his teeth teasing the sensitive bud of her swollen breasts.

 _How did he always manage to send her over the edge like this?_

All those weeks before of their illicit little hook-ups in the computer processor room and in the back of his car between classes, she had never imagined that he had such power to make her feel so completely unhinged just by touching her. He was a perfect sun-kissed specimen, several girls in her homeroom class had outright stalked him during his sophomore and junior years when he had been on the Neptune High swim team. Obviously being a warm-blooded female she had checked him out too, she'd always felt guilty about it because she had been dating his younger brother on and off for the better part of their Junior and Senior year, but there had been no denying the differences, the elder Casablancas brother had been an entirely different breed altogether. He wasn't like his gangly, juvenile, geekish younger sibling. He was a man. Bigger, Brawny. A man in peak physical condition.. probably the best shape he would ever be in his life… and right now he was hard and eager… demanding her complete surrender like her body was his personal carnal responsibility to conquer.

She felt the absence of his hot mouth against her and immediately mourned the loss, feeling his hands on the waistband of the white cotton panties as he pulled them down, hearing the distinct ripping of a condom packet before she felt his body against her, skin to skin, his thigh parted her legs, his throbbing erection poised at her wet sensitive opening.

"Hmmm… I can't decide if I want to take the blindfold off… or just keep it on you while we try out some of the new toys I have…" he murmured against her ear. Her breath caught in her throat, both a little anxious but excited at the thought of being completely at his mercy.

 _What could he possibly have planned for her?_

"Decisions… decisions…" he taunted as he inched himself slowly as he crowned her entrance and she gasped, her warm heat clenching around him eagerly. He slipped an elbow behind her knees and lifted her legs as he pushed himself in deeper. He captured her lips and she kissed him back hungrily, the need to touch more of him was unbearable.

 _How on earth had she ended up in this position? Lost to the passions of her body and the whims of the man whose child she was carrying? Six more days until the blood test... six more days before I have to tell him..._

Dick looked down at the dark haired beauty beneath him, there had been countless other women in his life but there was something about this fresh-faced loveliness that made him want to keep on looking at her, drinking her in until his tortured body drown in lust. He groaned as he gripped her pert backside and thrust himself in even faster, harder. She was so responsive to him after their kinky little warm up, he grinned to himself at what a good idea it had turned out to be when he had invested some of his trust fund in his frat brothers new business, Sinsation, he had been given a bag of their best selling products as samples that had come in very handy.

Basically, the woman beneath him drove him crazy. She snapped that cool restraint and overall indifference he tried to throw at life. He was a 'when life throws you lemons… get the tequila kind of guy' but with her… she turned him into a raging inferno, a complete Dicktator. Her grey eyes had the power to turn his blood-pumping with every little hair flip and eye roll… and don't even get him started when she began all that intelligent babble. He felt her body shaking again, she was close… if he let her try to stand up just now her legs would wobble unsteadily, the thought made him grin… if she couldn't stand up… she couldn't walk out of his bedroom…

"Mine…" he told her as he fucked her enthusiastically. She twitched around his cock and he dipped his head to her throat, his lips brushing the delicate skin of her neck down to the delectable hollow just before her collarbone, then he returned to her mouth, kissing her so masterfully she felt dizzy.

 _The man was going to ruin her…_

They were playing a game, right? She had started it… she'd goaded him, she'd been testing him… to see how far this newfound possessiveness went. Gasping, she opened her eyes as the blindfold was pulled away and she looked up at his flushed face, her chest heaving against his broad chest, a satisfied look on his face as she plummeted over the edge and threw her head back as her orgasm erupted through her body like an exploding grenade.

Weak, spent and helpless, she arched her back against the mattress, the motion causing her hips to tilt, taking him in even deeper.

 _If sex was ever an Olympic Sport… they had to take it off the running list because guys like Dick Casablancas made a mockery of it for everyone else… how could she possibly stand a chance against a guy who could turn her on like this?_

Sweat beaded down her body and he watched her face intently, an eyebrow raised in expectation in an _I'm Waiting_ gesture.

"Yours" she nodded finally, her lower body still pinned beneath him as he place his hands on her hips in a shameless display of claiming it as he grind slowly against her pelvis, teasing her clit.

"You accept this now?" he asked again, towering above her in all his glorious nakedness, he looked so meltingly, groaningly sexy.

"That you are every woman's fantasy?" she moaned in appreciation as he continued his leisurely thrusts.

 _He was bound to her now in a way that frightened her… would he accept her once she finally confessed?_

"Uh-uh.. not good enough… I'm afraid I have got to hear you say it" he said as he picked up an ice cube and trailed it down along her stomach. He revelled in her dishevelled, sweaty quivering mass, tangled in the sheets beneath him, he loved that he could do this do her. She was all his. Despite the casualness of his voice, there was no mistaking the look in his eyes. He had won. He may have come across as a typical fraternity millionaire playboy, but he was a ruthless son of a bitch when he wanted something.

When he had first enrolled at Hearst… he had told himself that She was off-limits. Completely, totally off-limits. The last 6 months when his dad had abandoned his family… then tragedy struck with his homicidal teenage brothers suicide… She had been his little brothers girlfriend… he'd been a total asshole to her in High School… he was trying to make a fresh start… to become a better person… He had burned so many bridges… There had been no question about it: Mac 'Cindy' MacKenzie was Off. Limits. He was supposed to be mad at her, but all he felt was the pulsing heat of desire. He should stay away from her. He had needed to stay away from her… but after their first night together.. he hadn't known how to make it stop… He just knew that now… this possessiveness… protectiveness… addiction… whatever it was he was feeling… he'd move heaven and earth to protect her, because he had the blood chilling feeling that if he lost her, his world will come apart.

"I belong with you" she admitted finally, her mind wandering to that tiny scrap of life growing inside her… there had been no doubt in her mind after that second test this morning. She could already feel the changes in her body. He smiled and with a few final series of punishing deep penetrative thrusts she felt him shudder, buck and then spasm inside her. "Are you going to let me out now?" she panted, gesturing to the cuffs.

"I can assure you Cindy baby… I am going to do no such thing… I still have a few toys we need to try.." he promised as rubbed the ice cube along her sensitive clitoris.


	33. Chapter 33

"So that's your problem? Been awhile?" Miller Corban scoffed as the Casino host Georgina Bourque ignored his unwelcome flirtation advances and glared at him before moved away with her glass of champagne to mingle with some of the other guests beside the crab's tables.

"Forward much?" Amira whispered to Wallace in disgust, he clenched his grip around the cards he was holding and tried his best to calm his reaction. He was starting to wish that he'd taken the offer on that free yacht back to campus just to get away from this entitled fucker. Eli Navarro had been a little rough around the edges, a known trouble maker in his youth and from the 'wrong side of town' but he never was disrespectful to women like that. Just went to prove that Wealth couldn't buy class and after having spent a golfing with the Miller Corban, he was grateful for his own lack of funds... nothing in his experience had taught him that having that kind of money made a guy a good person. Wallace had been taciturn since their arrival at the Ball fundraiser in the Catalina Casino owned by the Bourque family.

 _"If you think Millers bad now… wait until you see him in a Tux" Emerson had warned during their lunch earlier today… he hadn't been exaggerating._

"It's not every afternoon that an enigmatic, comely blonde named Mars walks into the scruffy gin joint where Logan "Two Left Feet" Echolls Props up the bar" Logan said in a terribly accented deep voice into Veronica's ear as he returned to the table with her drink, she smiled faintly and snuggled into him.

"Oh come on Camilla Cabello.. you know you girls like it when a guy tells you how hot you are…" Miller pressed as he slurred his words, his gaze leering over her curves in her satin evening dress and Wallace stiffened as the man appraised his girlfriend. "All this #Metoo is ruining what used to be considered a good old fashioned time, you know?" he complained looking to Joel Galen and his business partner Emerson Hartfield for some kind of agreement. Parker visibly paled at the chauvinistic playboys rantings and Veronica shifted closer in her seat to make sure she was okay.

"Listen man, nobody likes it when you talk to the girls like that, especially the girls… so why don't you slow down on that before someone decides to take you outside" Wallace growled as he calmly moved next to Amira, flexed a bit and stared the little beta in the eye, his eyes scanned the room to locate Piz and Zoe who were standing beside the roulette table speaking to the owners of Neptune's most popular CPKW 97.4 radio station. Sensing trouble his roommate met his eyes in question and gave him a questioning look.

"Relax man… Georgie's good for it" Miller scoffed, pointing off in her direction before mockingly adding in a high pitch whiny voice, "Aww, I'm a pretty girl. Everybody everywhere wants to buy me free drinks and have sex with me. Poor me… bitch LOVES that attention… relax…" he rolled his eyes but skulked off towards the bar. Joel gave Emerson a stern look and the other man sighed before going after him to avoid any further damage and keep him under control as it is not enough gain too much blowback.

"I can only apologize… guy is going through a nasty divorce" Joel explained as he rubbed a hand over the small of Parkers back. She gave him a weak smile but excused herself to go to the bathroom. "I was in college with him… we all were, me, Georgie, Emerson… He's usually like a cool guy… he'd been with the same woman for years, married her straight out of high school but… well… there's been some… adjustments"

"Really? I can't imagine _that_ fine male specimen behaving like an actual human being… I would probably activate defensive mode and run away like a startled deer if whatever he said didn't have some kind of revolting sexual undertone" Georgina muttered as she returned to the table with a small plate of finger sandwiches and pigs in blankets for the group.

"Come on Georgina.. don't be bitter" Joel frowned and Logan gave him a puzzled look. "Georgie here and Beth, Millers soon-to-be ex-wife were roommates… her loyalties are a bit torn"

"The asshole cheated on her with his Secretary… AND yours!" she complained as Parker came back.

"And she's divorcing him for it…" Emerson told her as he returned to the table.

"Where's Prince Charming?" Georgie demanded.

"In a cab.. on his way back to his hotel" he said, raising his hands up in surrender.

"Told you it was too soon for him to be out in public" Joel sighed.

"Hey.. I had to try" Emerson answered defensively. "The Board was getting worried… this whole mess is bad for the company image… Noel Stanton is a traditional family man" he explained, referring to the recent merger attempt with the Social Media Mogul that had been put at risk because of his partners recent personal troubles.

"Yes well, that's the difficulty with Morality Clauses in contracts" Joel frowned.

"It's also not smart to be screwing around behind your wife's back when her father is the head of California Bank & Trust and you want to move your business" Georgie complained.

"Sorry… let's not talk business at the table" Joel sighed as he glanced at Parker and the rest of the groups awkward silence over their little exchange. "PR problems" he offered.

"You know… Parkers Major is in Public Relations" Amira pointed out, making eye contact with her friend who smiled gratefully at the change in topic so her date wouldn't pry too much into her sudden uncomfortableness.

"Really?" Georgina asked in surprise, regarding the taller blond girl with renewed interest. "Pretty thing like you, I would have thought you were doing something in Fashion or the Arts."

"Yeah.. with a Minor in Social Media and Tech" she nodded, that last part had been influenced in part by her hacktivist computer guru roommate Mac MacKenzie.

"Emerson, you should get her card" Joel smiled. His friend was head of a Cyber Relations Consultancy that worked with Hospital Interfaces between drug companies and medical specialists like Galen Industries.

"Oh I don't have any of those yet.. I'm still a freshmen… I'm still undecided if it's something that I really want to pursue" Parker blushed.

"Do not sell yourself short!" Amira scolded. "You should see this girl campaigning… she's already revolutionized campus drink and safety awareness with her work in the Student Councils and the Campus Administration."

Parker had become a driving force after her own assault in making the Greek Houses, the Fraternities and Party Houses on Jock Row, where the Athletic village were located take the risk of rapes on campus more seriously after the recent attacks by Mercer Hayes. They now had a Campus wide safety policy which had been so successful it was being rolled out to several other institutions as far away as San Diego State and UCLA.

"Well… I think that's officially me out" Logan sighed as he tossed his cards down and looked at his final few chips. He glanced down at Veronica who had decided to not place another bet also as Wallace smiled and gathered up his winnings. His late night hang-outs in the Mars Investigations Office with Veronica listening to the police scanners and reviewing her footage from her various planted cameras while playing cards in Senior High had certainly payed off tonight but he could see from glancing over at his roommate Piz, he wasn't having much luck.

"I still thought you were supposed to be good at this" Wallace roasted Logan as he grinned at Veronica in victory.

"The student has become the Master" she nodded in approval.

"Okay… well what do you say you and I go Master the dancefloor?" Logan said, slipping his hand into hers and pulling her up from her seat as the performers and band took to the stage. A thin woman with dark hair and black eyes in an evening dress began a sultry cover of Vance Joys – I'm with you as couples began to filter onto the dancefloor.

Logan pulled the petite sleuth to him and inhaled her perfume as they began to sway and began to croon some of his favourite lyrics gently into her ear; she rewarded him with a smile as the soothing sound of his voice vibrated through his chest as he held her to his body.

"It's criminal that not only are you good looking... but you can also sing pretty well" Veronica teased as she melted into his embrace; she breathed him in and felt at peace.

 ** _THIS…_** _This moment is why she had wanted to stay on Catalina Island… the rest of the world fell away and it was just the two of them…_

"We are going to get through this" he comforted as she leaned her head against his chest listening to his heartbeat.

"I know… I believe in Us" she told him as she looked up at him, her arms around his hips. Logan Echolls was her centre. The noise and the conspiracy theories and the endless questions all grew quiet when she was with him. Being in his arms, feeling his touch was like the deepest meditation she had ever found. His words could hurt the most, but in the four years of this little push and pull between them she had never been able to let him go.

"I'm always going to believe in us… it's always been you Veronica… it's always will be" he told her earnestly.

"Spanning year and continents?" she mused.

 _Live's ruined… blood shed…_

"Epic" he nodded. "We don't have to tell anyone yet… our story is our own.."

"He would have been happy for us" Veronica told him, her eyes watering as her thoughts turned to Weevil.

"Yeah… he'd probably have broken into my car to leave us an engagement gift" he pondered.

"He kind of already did.." Veronica said softly, running her fingers over the recovered cufflinks on his wrists. Weevil had been the one to contact his old PCH Biker crew to locate Havier and the missing items from the night that the Echolls family estate had been torched after he'd had lunch with her in the Hearst cafeteria a few weeks ago and she'd mentioned wanting to do something special for her boyfriend.

"Guy is always trying to one up me…" Logan muttered, remembering their friendly rivalry from High School. The two of them had become closer during the attempts to clear his name and find out who had really murdered Felix Toomes that night on the bridge when Aaron Echolls had been arrested.

"It's been a lot this week" she said quietly. Weevils murder, which was no random act of violence... it was connected to the other recent murders of Dean Odell, she was sure of it. The unexpected loss so close on the heels of the death of Sheriff Lamb, her father's re-instatement to Office, her unplanned engagement, finding out that notorious playboy and all round jock Dick Casablancas and her best friend Mac were now officially an item… which was worrisome because if getting her boyfriend in trouble, and girls out of their pants, was a sport, Dick Casablancas would be the star athlete… and the Neptune Women's Free Clinic had yet to perform the blood tests to confirm Mac's pregnancy…

She was exhausted, and tomorrow morning when they returned to Neptune, the real work would begin.

Sheriff Mars sighed as he exited the elevator to the Neptune Grand Hotel penthouse suites and knocked on the familiar door to the Echolls Boy's apartment. He rarely enjoyed his visits to this place… as a father he didn't like to think about the kind of things that happened here involving his daughter and her boyfriend.

 _She was growing up too fast…_

A sudden well of sadness moved through him as he thought of the pending autopsy report of Eli Navarro's body and the forensic files sitting on his desk in the Balboa County Sheriff's department awaiting his return.

Sheriff Lambs killer, Steve Botando had vehemently denied any involvement with Dean Odells death, and the checks on the IT Logs on the computer part serials had confirmed his story that the recent computer maintenance had removed his old keyboard to storage, but it had somehow ended up in the Dean's office. Someone had planted false evidence and Keith could make the educated guess that the blood on the clothing found in the incinerator would belong to the Dean. Somehow, Eli Navarro had stumbled upon whoever had been trying to destroy the proof and it had cost him his life.

 _"Life moves so fast you got to document the good times, man"_ he recalled the cocky teen mocking him after his first arrest as he was having his mug shot taken. It had still been the picture used on his police file that Keith had looked through today, he'd only been 13 years old at the time and full of attitude and swagger even then in his oversized shoplifted hand me down leather jacket from his older cousin Chardo Navarro.

Knocking on the door he stood back and waited as Dick Casablancas came and opened it.

"Hi Daddy Mars, Sup?" the tall blond man greeted him while standing shirtless in nothing but a pair of black sweat pants.

"It's Sheriff Mars… You called Said it was urgent and couldn't wait until morning?" Keith corrected as he sighed and he stepped inside, his eyes doing its usual critical observation of his surroundings, he was less than amused by the missing and half empty bottles of alcohol in the liquor cabinet, but decided it was a matter for another day, it was late and he was tired. He had very little tolerance for trust fund frat boys like Dick Casablancas, he remembered all too well the visits to Neptune High School to collect Veronica after the reign of cruelty that Logan Echolls and his peers had visited upon his daughter during her Junior year after the death of Lilly Kane.

She may have forgiven them but there was some things a parent couldn't forget so easily after seeing the pain in his child's eyes.

"Uh right… yes… well you see… I've tried going through my own personal stash and I've pulled the apartment apart looking for where Loggs might have put them but even that Youtube tutorial with the pins wouldn't work… I had to call you because I can't get them open and she's got class in the morning" Dick rambled and guided him inside the small living area.

"Couldn't get what open?" Keith sighed as he turned and saw a very nervous bedraggled Mac MacKenzie emerging from the bedroom, dressed in a pair of shorts and a bandana top, with her hands secured in front of her in a pair of Neptune County Sheriff Department handcuffs.

"Hey Mr Mars" she greeted him shyly, her cheeks burning red with embarrassment.

"We couldn't find the keys… so dude… if you could just.." he said making an unlocking gesture "that would be great" he explained nonchalantly and pointed then offered her a small cup of coffee with a smile. Grimacing, Keith Mars reached into his pocket for the keys.

 _Yeah… as a father… he didn't want to know exactly what went on in this place… or why he was staring at his missing set of cuffs he had been unable to find for the last few months._


	34. Chapter 34

Parker couldn't stop the uncontrollable laughter as she looked at her petite roommates red cheeks as she recounted her embarrassment at her best friend's father, Neptune's current acting Sheriff Keith Mars having to make a late night visit to her boyfriend's hotel suite because he had decided to use handcuffs during their sex session but hadn't checked it he had the keys to get them off her again.

"I'm sorry… I shouldn't laugh…" Wallace sniggered as well.

"Thanks for the solidarity" Mac scolded as she swatted his arm.

"What? I'm sorry… its just… isn't that like the first rule?" he commented.

"Absolutely.. you always check for the keys to be in a safe place" Parker nodded in agreement.

"Rules? Is this some section in the student handbook I didn't get? I was soooooo embarrassed!" Mac said, burying her head in her arms.

 _Not to mention I'm nearly 98.7% sure I'm pregnant…_

"This was Veronica's dad though… you know him…" Parker comforted.

"Exactly… the mostly Dadly of all Dad's ever!" Mac exclaimed. "He's like the Super Dad… I'm not even his kids and he's got me seeking his parental approval…" she groaned. Something about he elder Mars made you want to not disappoint him.

"So where is Mr Casanova?" Parker said, changing the subject.

"Business studies class" Mac sighed as she tugged her arms into the large hoody she had stolen from his wardrobe that morning, inhaling the citrusy masculine scent. "We should have just gotten on the boat" she mused.

"No way… I saw you this morning, you would have been green all weekend" Parker disagreed as she pushed her finished lunch plate away from herself.

"That's right… even Logan had trouble with his sea legs on the journey over" Piz added as he joined them at the table.

"Yeah… _trouble with his sea legs…_ " Wallace grinned knowingly and Parker chuckled.

"Yeah, it must have been pretty bad, because even Veronica had a little bit of motion sickness the next day…" Piz continued obliviously.

"Sounds like you all had a good time though" Mac observed.

"A profitable time… I put down a $40 bet and hit a lucky streak, ended up $500 up" Wallace nodded, peeling apart the small orange in his hand.

"Well it was very cool. I got to meet Latoya Alonso… she's putting me in touch with her producer about maybe organizing like a workshop for the AV department here on campus that could lead to extra funding or some internships for the summer" Piz added as he opened his Snapple.

"Do you think you will take up that internship Emerson offered you?" Wallace asked Parker.

"And have to spend three months in the same vicinity of Miller Corban? No thank you… I have organized some tour campaigning with the Lilith House I should be able to do for a few weeks if I'm going back to Denver" Parker answered.

"Wise move" he agreed as he nodded in approval. The thought of the jackass still made the skin on his knuckles twitch.

"Would you be free to come ride with me later?" Mac asked her.

 _I need to go to the Neptune Free Clinic… see if they can hurry up that blood test…_

"Sure… we can stop by the pharmacy while we are out..." Parker suggested, she was running low on her favourite shampoo and the scuba-diving yesterday had left her in desperate need of conditioner.

"Where's Amira?" Piz asked Wallace thoughtfully.

"She didn't have any classes today, so I think she's at her families restaurant" he explained.

"I like this one.." Parker complimented. "You should have seen them yesterday…" she gushed to Mac.

"Alright… alright… she's alright" Wallace smiled embarrassed.

"Just alright? Dude… you've been singing in the shower like a crazy person" Piz informed him as he picked up a fry and dipped it into his ketchup.

"Okay.. fine… I'm fixated… She. Makes. Me. Happy." he deadpanned.

"And what about you and Zoe?" Parker gossiped, turning her attention to Piz.

"Yeah… we didn't see much of you two… how was your little Day Date?" Wallace roasted, turning the tables on his roommate who visibly blushed like a teenage girl and smiled sheepishly.

"I don't think it's going anywhere…" he shrugged. "She's cool… I mean.. she's really nice but…"

"But unless your name is Nick O'Connell and you are carrying a badge and know how to apprehend criminals and terrorists in confined spaces in the stratosphere…. I think you are wasting your time" Veronica interrupted as she joined them at the table as Dick and Logan wandered over to the table next to them to get additional seats.

"Synchronicity… I have to get to practise" Wallace sighed as he glanced over at his best friend.

"Then I'll tell you quick… my dad just arrested Professor Landry" Veronica told him solemnly.

"Your criminology teacher?" Mac asked.

"Yep" she confirmed as Logan slotted into the seat beside her.

"Why?" Parker asked, her blue eyes wide in shock.

"The blood on the clothing found in the incinerator belonged to Dean Odell and a laundry receipt tag found in the pocket of the jeans… belonged to the Professor" she explained as she began to unwrap her burrito, while Dick took the chair that Wallace offered beside Mac.

"I wonder if it has anything to do with Professor Landry banging the Dean's wife?" Dick mused as he took a bite of his burger, suddenly all eyes at the table looked towards the blond surfer.

"What?" Veronica choked. She'd been prying into the Dean's life for the last few weeks. How the hell didn't she know about the affair?

"Dude… how do you know this?" Logan asked him incredulously.

"Bro… How do you think Booth got that an extension on that mid-term? He caught them at it right there going at it on Landry's desk" Dick told him through a mouthful of burger.

Logan cast a quick glance at Veronica and raised his eyebrows.

"I need to call my dad" she nodded.


	35. Chapter 35

(Ed Sheeran – Small Bump)

"I can't just ctrl-alt-delete this" Mac murmured as she slumped down on the bench outside planned parenthood with Parker taking the seat silently beside her.

Two urine samples and a blood test later, and it was confirmed.

 _Dick Casablancas was going to be her baby daddy._

The outcome of that first night together she'd been worried about for a month now, was a reality, and ever since the nursing practitioner had confirmed the test, scheduled her for an ultrasound at a local free clinic then handed her a box of pre-natal vitamins and a bunch of family planning pamphlets the world had felt like she was hearing everything from underwater.

Was she going to have to drop out of college? Did her parents even have insurance for this?

She was at Hearst on a Turing and Kane Technology and Engineering Scholarship.

Would her professor revoke it if they thought she couldn't keep up with her classes?

Oh God… how was she going to tell her parents? What if those screwed up photographers Veronica had told her about sent pictures of her leaving the Neptune student clinic with Parker?

She glanced around nervously, she couldn't see anything suspicious, but then again, she knew how well Veronica could fly under the radar during a stake-out, so that didn't fill her with much confidence.

It wasn't the first time they'd been here.

She'd been with Parker after the hospital to the Neptune health clinic for STD testing and to collect the morning after pill after the Sheriffs department liaisons and Heart officials had conducted their forensic exam and rape kit the morning of her attack.

 _She was pregnant… with Dick's baby…_ and the thought had been giving her heart contractions.

She wasn't sure about it, it already felt like her brain was going to go nuclear.

 _That pink positive sign was nailed into her thoughts like a crucifix._

 _Holy Hell.. what was she going to do?_

Parker wouldn't take long in confirming their suspicions to Piz and Wallace, and she couldn't expect Logan to keep it from his roommate forever, especially after he'd already proposed to Veronica, she had no leverage.

The list of people who knew except Dick was getting bigger by the day, and her Maybe Baby, was now a 100% certain as finding sugar in can of coca cola.

"I am amazed you are holding it together. I know I gave you crap about the safe sex talk, but we are past that now… and Oh god the hormones… The peeing 4 times an hour… the nausea? The child handling class just seemed like a good idea." Parker said, leafing through the pamphlets and suddenly Mac had to laugh at the very suggestion of Dick attending the pre-birth classes with her. "Look, Mac" Parker said turning to face her and grabbing her hand. "I know it's scary right now. I mean… Finding clothing that fits right is never easy, but its even more difficult when you're nine months pregnant! But I'm _going to be here_ for you, like you were here for me… **whatever** you decide okay?" she told her earnestly.

Mac knew what she meant, several of those pamphlets contained advice on counselling services, and a discreet costing of a more _permanent_ solution. She couldn't even entertain that option right now, her mind was still reeling, but she appreciated the sentiment. Parker was still wearing a wig after her assault, so she was careful when she wrapped her arms around the taller blond, grateful for the support.

"I don't know what I'm going to do" Mac admitted.

"You know one thing… you have options and there's no need to rush anything. Veronica and I will come with you to the ultrasound. Take the time to figure out what it is _you_ want to do. Nothing has to change right now, even if it does feel like the sky is falling. So go to class, do your laundry and You can be all _Papa Don't Preach_ or sleep on it until you know what feels right" Parker advised her.

"He doesn't know yet" Mac said quietly, recalling that conversation about how Dick told her he didn't want to marry her when she'd confronted him about Veronica's engagement ring she had mistaken for a surprise from him.

Should she tell him? He was an irresponsible frat boy, one who'd had several fines from campus security for public indecency and pranks.

It wasn't like she could keep it from him forever... over the next 6 months, it was going to become very obvious, he could be easily distracted by breasts, but there was no way he wasn't going to notice the gentle swell of her stomach.

 _Even now she could recognize those little flutters, like bubbles inside, the ache in her breasts telling her she was full of life._

Who was she kidding? She knew how he was going to react.

 _Fuck…. She'd started this thing with him while she was still dating Bronson!_

 _What if Dick thought he wasn't even the father?_

He'd already had one possible pregnancy this year, hadn't there been an arrest a few months ago when some girl had slipped her roommate a pill that aborted her foetus? Dick had been on the initial list of potential fathers... and that girl _wasn't_ the one who he'd divorced a few months ago after he'd taken off to Vegas.

Neptune's Sheriff department was tearing apart Dean Odell's final hours.

Veronica was off talking to students from Lilith house about egging Dean Odell's office the night of his murder, canvassing for witnesses after her father had discovered information during an interview with the Dean's wife about her affair with Professor Landry.

Forensics was still attempting to link the bloodied clothing found with Weevils body in the incinerator to Professor Landry, and a prescription refill had been linked to the Dean's wife. Toxicology showed heavy traces of Xanax and alcohol in his system. Trying to corroborate his wife's statement about the timing of eggs on a window seemed a bit of a stretch, and possibly unnecessary for the timeline. Although Mac guessed it was her friends coping technique to throw herself into every possible lead of the investigation that had resulted in the murders of both Dean Odell and their classmate Weevil Navarro.

Weevil.. Dealing with Weevils death less than 6 months after losing Cassidy was a lot to deal with.

They hadn't even released his body to his family yet.

 _Goodbye cruel world._ Perhaps throwing herself into a little cyber sleuthing would take her mind off the things she couldn't face right now. She had been trying to figure out how she felt about dating her deceased boyfriend's brother, let alone having the guy as her baby daddy.

Sheriff Mars had asked Mac to review the electronic evidence embedded in the Hearst I.T. department, to try and link up who had requested the removal of Dean Odell's hard-drives after his alleged suicide. Parker had mentioned something about heading into the pharmacy to get shampoo and a few feminine hygiene items for back at the dorms.

 **Dick: Grabbing snacks with Logan, but would rather be eating you *winky face***

Mac wiped away frustrated tears and shot Parker off a text about heading to the computer labs to look over the swipe-card logs for Veronica.

 _At least there she would feel productive…_ she grimaced, feeling the bottle of multi-vitamins rattle in her hands.


	36. Chapter 36

(Everything is lost - Maggie eckford)

Veronica bite into her burrito and screwed up her nose a little when a few chews revealed she'd captured a mouthful of mostly green pickle.

 _This is why she shouldn't her dad pick up dinner._ Setting the offending morsel back down on the plate she turned over the evidence on her father's desk. Most of this she knew he wouldn't want her to see.

Her finger felt bare and her engagement ring was tucked safely away in her purse until this craziness died down, and they got to the bottom of this.

Sharing her and Logan's plans for Nuptials with her dad just felt wrong before they laid Eli Navarro to rest, especially since he no longer had a future.

Part of her couldn't help but feel it was somehow her fault. She'd been so distracted lately, so wrapped up in her own bliss, she'd almost taken her eye off the road ahead.

Sometimes she did suck in the friends department. Like Junior year when Wallace had taken off to Chicago for several months after he'd found out about his dad?

She'd even missed Mac's obvious distress and budding relationship with her boyfriend's roommate.

 _Could she really have lost her touch and Professor Landry had been the killer in front of her the whole time?_

Weevil's juvenile case file was spread open alongside the pictures of the crime scene. The mugshots showed the evolution of a teenage motorcycle loving bad boy and his ever increasing patchwork of tattoos. She was no stranger to this loss. Logan had told she wasn't a killer, but things like this happening to people she loved definitely fed her inner demons.

Swallowing against the lump in her throat, Veronica scolded herself to remain detached. It wasn't like this was the first time she'd seen the gruesome murder photos of someone that she loved, she'd spent almost two years looking at the crime scene footage circulating the internet of Lily Kane, her dead best friend while she had been hunting for her killer.

She just had to maintain that cool analytical detachment, and break it down into smaller pieces, like a jigsaw that needed puzzled together to show her the whole picture of what had happened to him. Part of her always feared she'd be seeing images of Weevil like this someday; he'd tried hard to change from his gangster past. His probation was almost over.

They'd been talking about him attending night school, and Dean Odell had been enquiring with Neptune school district and his parole officer to get his High School Diploma released because Sheriff Lamb had arrested him for involvement in Thumpers murder before he'd been allowed to graduate.

The bloodied shirt found in the incinerator was familiar. She recognized it was one that Professor Landry had been wearing during the faculty student mixer during her first few weeks at Hearst.

It felt good to have her father back in the Sheriff's office. It gave her hope that the wheels of justice would get their man and grind them under its heel for what had happened to the Dean and Weevil.

 _She would make sure it did. We will use the Mars Powers for Good._

Mindy Odell was insistent that Professor Landry had been with her during the hours that her husband had been murdered. The timing of the Lilith House assault on the Hearst Faculty Offices, and timings of her call to Landry at the Neptune Grand, and her car being checked back in with the valet seemed to agree with what she had been confessing.

She admitted to being the one to refill her husband's prescription, she also admitted to her husband being the man overheard arguing with Professor Landry by concierge at the Neptune Grand. Both accounts seemed to match up, and forensic evidence of Dean Odells computer during last week when she had been helping Josh skip town, had shown the fingerprints on the keyboard were from Steve Botando.

The man who'd killed Sheriff Lamb.

She twisted the small evidence bag in her hands, the one that held a small bug found in Professor Landry's phone.

Who had been listening in on Professor Landry?

Why?

He swore that he was being set up… and he'd almost been ruled out of the investigation until that shirt had shown up.

 _It didn't make sense though._

Landry was an expert profiler. He spent time training FBI agents, he had a career studying the mistakes people made. He had years of knowledge and experience if he wanted to outsmart a small town Sheriff like Donald Lamb.

 _He wouldn't have been as sloppy as this._

Her fingers lingered over the security images of Weevil arriving to work that morning and the last few stills of him entering the car park before going to maintenance department under the main campus building, his last known movements before he left the same way in a body bag.

No one else had left in the last few hours after his estimated time of death, which meant the killer had likely used the access in the main building so they knew their way around. They also knew how to avoid the campus security systems.

 _It was detailed, methodical, and organized._

She had seen Professor Landry's lesson plans. He was brilliant, instinctual and an inspiring educator…. But attention detail and being organized were not in his skillset.

 _Was it so methodical and detailed that this potential cover up was actually sloppy?_

"Has anyone told you, you look very convincing in this office?" Veronica chirped as her father walked back in. She knew he disapproved of her meddling in on-going cases now he was official and she should be a civilian.

"Care to tell me why you are perusing Weevil's case file?" Keith Mars retorted, arching an eyebrow.

"Trying to pick out the best angle to use at his memorial service?" she replied dryly, her mouth quirking up slightly when she picked up one of Weevil giving the mugshot his best Blue Steel impression.

"Did you eat my sandwich?" Keith asked pointing at the plate beside Veronica.

"No" Veronica denied, her face reddening before she picked up Mindy Odells latest statement her father had placed on the desk before climbing into his seat. "Any luck making our canary sing?" she asked while watching her dad inspect the half eaten burrito.

"Nope, so far they are sticking to their original statements. They both agree they saw Dean Odell the night he died, but the parking valet check in corroborates that Mindy Odell returned from Hearst campus before the ear witness heard the final gunshot that killed Dean Odell" he sighed. "And we have absolutely no reason why Steve Botando's keyboard would have been traded to the computer where the staged suicide note was written. Nothing but dead ends."

Her father looked as frustrated as Veronica felt.

"Then maybe we need to have a closer look at Steve Botando?" Veronica suggested. Her father and Deputy Sacks had been kept at arms-length with the Botando police shooting since they were both witnesses in the death of Sheriff Lamb.

It also meant, that his potential involvement in the death of Dean Odell had been overlooked.

Not that it would have mattered, Steve Botando and Sheriff Lamb were both deceased long before someone had tried to dispose of evidence and killed Weevil.

Someone was going to a lot of trouble to point the finger at Mindy Odells ex-husband Steve.

 _What was the thread linking all this together?_

Veronica felt her fathers hand clasping onto hers, breaking her out of her reverie.

"What you say we get some take-out from that little Thai place?" he suggested.

She smiled weakly and nodded. Logan was busy doing some economics assignment and she'd promised to spend the night at home with her dad after the long weekend.

They'd made more progress in the last 24 hours with the Dean's case after that tip-off about Mindy Odells affair with Professor Landry.

Maybe it was just as simple as a wife and her lover bumping off her husband for the insurance money?

"Did you ask them about Weevil?" Veronica asked quietly picking up her coat.

"Credit card statements place them both at a bistro just off El Camino, I'm trying to get surveillance footage but it's in Santo Rita County and we don't have jurisdiction there, so I can't run down that lead further until I hear back from the state police and local Sheriffs Department" he sighed following his daughter out and locking his office.

"You're letting her leave?" Veronica frowned as she watched Deputy Taylor process Mindy Odells release papers.

"Baiting a hook, I have Deputy Jones and Briar tailing her" Keith explained quietly.

"So there's nothing we can do?" she asked.

"Not exactly, I was hoping you could pay a visit to an old colleague. I want you to find out if Vinnie Van Lowe had any reason to follow Professor Landry's phone" Keith said.

"You want to find out if he's responsible for bugging Professor Landrys phone?" she queried.

"Let's just see if anything checks out. I have warrants to check bank statements to see if Landry paid Van Lowe to stay quiet. We don't know if the night he died is really the first time Cyrus Odell found out about his wifes affair. I just want to make sure that Dean Odell wasn't a former client" Keith explained.

"You know he's going to want you to sweeten the pot before he gives up any information about his clients" Veronica cautioned. They both knew that Van Lowe very well could have been tailing the Deans wife, but that he was much more likely to blackmail the clandestine lovers than reveal his discoveries to the clients he overcharged for his services.

He was unethical and a disgrace to the profession, but he was still a Hell of a P.I.

"I'm willing to work on that, he was arrested for loitering and trespass, worked up a few parking tickets. The Sheriffs department may be willing to overlook some of this in gratitude for his co-operation" Keith sighed.

"And compromise the integrity of the badge?" Veronica said with a mock gasp.

"I only said there could be the possibility…" he shrugged.

"With distinctions like that, I'm amazed you never went to law school" she smiled and followed Sheriff Mars out into the chilly night air.

"Okay, so I get you are in the Nerd Zone like a Dork… but I got the full season boxset of Pretty Little Liars and I know how much you hate watching that stuff when Veronicas around, so what you say we get pizza binge before its ruined by Ms Teen Detective?" Dick announced as he carried the large pizza into the penthouse suite in the Neptune Grand.

"Uh… Dick-" Logan said in an urgent tone but it was too late.

The boxes fell to the floor as Dick saw what had his roommate so concerned as he looked into the face of a man he'd hoped never to see.

"Hello Dad," He swallowed.


	37. Chapter 37

(Lily Allen - Fuck You)

"I thought you were getting some new digs… something… cosy in an 8 by 6?" Dick growled impatiently avoiding eye contact with his father as he recovered and picked the boxes from the floor and shot an assessing glance at Logan. "Unless Uncle Sam cut you a deal… decided to offer you a new career like _White Collar_?"

"You sound like your mother," Richard Casablancas senior sighed.

It was criticism and Dick knew it, he had forever been reminded of how much his looks favored his mothers. Whenever his dad had wanted to instill some lesson about how he wasn't being man enough about something, he'd bring up how much more he resembled her than his fathers poor man impression of Brendan Fraser as if was some personal failing on his part.

Dick studied the differences between the two of them, thankful that he didn't have to see reminders of the man he hated in his own face. His father's hair was much more salt and pepper than it had been a few months ago when his father had shown up at the start of the semester and informed him about the plea deal. Dick was sure it had more to do with the lack of expensive designer barbering than any feelings of grief over his youngest son Cassidy's suicide.

 _To think he used to_ hero worship _this son of a bitch. Joke was on him._

"I'm pretty sure any of Moms outbursts would have been more than fair" Dick retorted running a hand through his tangled blond hair.

"I'll give you two some privacy.." Logan offered quietly returning a concerned look to his roommate and his gaze returning to their unwelcome guest. His arms crossed over his broad chest, still standing and obviously uncomfortable.

"No, I don't think you should. I thought the last time we spoke I was implicitly clear that a thousand years wouldn't be soon enough for this conversation" Dick said glaring at his father. Dick was silently grateful when his friend didn't move and infinitesimally stepped closer to him.

His dads chuckle caught him off guard. Seating himself on the white leather sofa he gestured at the seat opposite him.

 _Forget throwing naked polaroids over the balcony... what would hotel_ mangagement _have to say about him tossing his dad head over to kiss pavement?_

"Heard and duly noted. But since we are all adults here now, I think we both know that won't be the most practical since it seems in light of recent evidence that I may not be going heading away after all" he smiled. "We'll see how things go"

That last statement had both men snap their attention to the older man.

"Recent evidence?" Logan asked, apprehension filled the pit of his stomach.

"Oh yes, and honestly... I have you to thank Logan" he grinned, relishing their confused expressions. "I'll admit at first I was _more_ than a little angry to find out that you had been screwing my wife but I've had some time, distance really, to think it over. It's true though, time away does bring a certain clarity and in light of recent revelations of Kendall's connection to the Phoenix Land Trust, her fake identity and absconding to parts unknown with almost $8million dollars of investments, I'll admit I was as shocked as anyone to find out she was bribing state officials to _lie_ about those property deals Her infidelity only helps my case, of course it would be even more helpful if I could find out the name of the private investigator hired to take those photographs."

"You're trying to pin your Ponzi scheme on your wife?" Logan asked furiously. Kendall was lying dead in a shallow grave someplace in Mexico thanks for Liam Fitzpatrick and his connections to some local drug smuggling cartels. Now the guy who'd cared more about the size of her cleavage than her IQ was trying to scapegoat her as the mastermind behind his evil realty empire?

"Wow Dad, you really are the _Chris Wilton_ of Neptune," Dick huffed in a disgusted breath. No relationship was sacred to this asshole. He hadn't shown at Cassidy's funeral and he had the nerve to show up here. He remembered Kendall's shocked reaction when she found out that his father had left her with absolutely nothing when he'd fled the country last year. Her name hadn't been on any of the assets, the old man had abandoned his beautiful adulterous spouse and now that could work out in his favor if he could steer investigators into looking into her as a person of interest. His father was ruthless, and with his connections, he could probably manipulate proceedings so he wouldn't spend a single day behind bars and serve a suspended 6 month sentence.

 _What were his plans for fending off the lawsuits from families of the victims on the small plane and bus crash that Cassidy had blown up?_

 _His hatred of his father would forever be tied to loss of his brother._

"You think I'm gold-digging after your trust fund?" his father asked with such insincerity Dick almost laughed in disgust.

"I'm not stupid, you married mom for her trust fund, you Donald Trump'd your way through your taxes, you ripped off the parents of most of my 09er classmates, and including my favorite teacher, so I ended up flunking that class. I'm sure that life insurance on me and Beaves would have been just to help curb your grief and anguish… the only reason you found out about the Phoenix Land Trust is because you were trying to get information to force the insurance company to pay out because they wouldn't since he got all _13 Reason's Why_ and **KILLED** himself. I mean, I guess you are glad he didn't actually use any of that target practice training you drilled into his head and he didn't go Columbine on us or the list of plaintiffs could be much higher…" Dick snarled furiously throwing the box onto the table beside him. "The only reason you are here is because you couldn't find Kendall… so now you want _me_ to bail you out."

The roguish grin faltered under the tsunami of vitriol that the younger Casablancas hurled at his father. Logan had never seen Dick so angry, so out of control, and it unsettled him as blood soared in his ears. His friend had been a wreck the last time he'd seen his father, reality, guilt and the trauma of losing his younger brother had finally broken through the superficial bubble Dick tried to inhabit most of the time. The rush of blood to his head made Dick feel like he was going to detonate, everything he'd been wanting to say to his father had finally come tumbling out and the man had the audacity to sit there nonchalant not even looking at him, just glancing into the ice in his empty glass.

"Another drink?" Richard drawled gravel-voiced. Placing the heavy glass onto the coffee table in front of him, perched on the edge of his seat, he regarded his son carefully. "Things won't always seem this way. Once my accounts are restored and the office relinquishes those the charges against me things can get back to normal." He promised in a whiskey smooth tone, as he straightened. The ankle monitor obvious beneath his navy custom chinos.

"Don't waste your reassurances on me. Cassidy is DEAD. There is no New Normal, and there is no US. This Family is broken. You did that when you ran away and left us. I don't need to waste my time talking to someone I don't trust" Dick snapped. "I have the only family I need, now get the hell out before I call security."

Glancing down at the silver-linked watch Richard shook his head.

"Some of us have moved on" Richard shrugged tossing a shiny business card onto the table. "I'll be staying in the Mirabella at the Galaxy Restort Hotel, when you have had time to digest this news we can catch up again. Maybe take get lunch at the club?" and walking towards the door. The knock on the hallway door revealed Jackie from hospitality coming in with a large tray of room service. "Ah.. I'm afraid I won't be staying but please, you boys enjoy the meal."


	38. Chapter 38

(Andy Grammer - I found you)

Tears still stung his eyes, and Dick was glad that with his casual surfer appearance most of the guys he passed from his fraternity to the Hearst computer labs assumed that his red-rimmed eyes were because he was high as fuck. He offered a half-amused smirk and shook his head in negation when they invited him to the wet tank top contest some of the Sororities were hosting outside Lilith House in protest over their attempt at banning Greek Life on campus.

Most of the guys at Hearst didn't know anything about the tragic Casablancas family history which happened last summer. His family lawyers had still spun a pretty plausible story about Cassidy's death being an accident, and mainstream media outlets were more interested in tracking down his dad than covering the suicide of a high school student.

 _Beaves…_

Even now he still couldn't reconcile the little brother who'd been his shadow and followed him like a pet with the person who had done the things the whispers suggested.

How could someone that meek and sweet have blown up a plane and caused the crash that killed their classmates?

Logan had wanted to delve deep and talk things out, but after that encounter with his dad he couldn't sit still, in the last year he'd lost more than his heart could take.

His dad's theories about getting off wouldn't work, then again… all he had to prove was reasonable doubt.

He closed his eyes and shoved away the memory of Betina Marone, his fling during the summer before Senior year. Hells… he knew he'd been a prick, keeping her at a distance but still addicted to spending time with her.. letting her think it was nothing but a booty call but his time with her had been better than anything he'd had with anyone, and he'd known his dad would give him shit if he discovered him slumming it with an 03er. Dick hadn't been with as many girls as he liked to brag about but he was pretty sure she'd only been on the bus that day because of him.

 _He'd behaved like Madison._

He'd taken what he'd wanted from her... and even after she was gone he'd still played off her death to Veronica like it was nothing, even though the memorial posters of her warm familiar face made him feel like he was crumbling a little.

It was easier to pretend to be a vapid asshole, and he'd played that role to perfection.

Casablancas men didn't admit to needing anyone. They didn't talk about his mother, only the happy stuff, the Hallmark playboy moments. Until tonight no one had been a fly on the wall to their shitshow.

 _Handle your shit like a man._ It was the lesson his father had taught them and probably the reason why a quiet kid who carried the scars of what Woody Goodman had done to him had never spoken up. When Dick glanced in the rear-view, every breath was an obvious cry for help.

Cassidy's cry for help. The brother he had failed. Anger brewed in his gut.

No….The son his _father_ had failed and wouldn't even acknowledge.

He knew what he needed, he wouldn't freefall into grief like he had last summer. She barely had time to turn in her chair before Mac realized who was kissing her. His hands braced both sides of her face and he plundered her mouth as if he'd happily drown in the only source of water for miles after days in a desert. A groan escaped him when surprise turned into surrender and her hands were in his hair.

 _There's my girl…_

"Hi" she breathed against his lips, her grey eyes wide.

"Hi back," he smiled then captured her mouth again. His hands eagerly plucking her up from the chair and wrapping her legs around his waist. Her hands clamped around his broad shoulders and he turned her back against the door. His heated stare burned like the sun, a flash of white teeth before he dipped his head and kissed the hollow of her throat. His tongue running over the delicate pulse of her throat as his teeth grazed the tender skin. "Tastes good."

 _She was the Nectar of the Gods… she smells of cinnamon and honey..._

Guilt clawed into his chest as he pulled her against him, a white-hot punch of heat licking down to his cock as his fingers fumbled with the lock on the door handle. Cindy Mackenzie should be in his brothers' arms but she still made his blood burn. That first night together had doused them in gasoline and set them on fire.

 _They'd gone from one conversation to his lips on hers and igniting_ _this craving for her which had been fucking him up for months._ Cindy would never be someone he could deserve.

His brother would never get to go to college… he'd never get to find a good place like this… never get to see that life could have been better... The truth hurt.

Maybe Dick should have gone to see that bottle of whiskey with his name on it? He was helplessly furious with himself for the mistakes with his brother that he would never be able to change, because death was final. Only life gave you the opportunity for second chances. Closing his eyes against the typhoon of sadness he rested his forehead against hers.

"I'm sorry" his voice was rough, unsteady. Almost like he was unraveling inside. Sadness shadowed his blue eyes, a sorrow she was sure he'd only ever shown himself in the mirror. She was soft and gentle and safe… everything he wasn't.

"Are you mad at me?" Mac asked softly, nerves plucking at her belly. _Who had told him? How had he found out so quickly?_

A kid surely wasn't in either of their plans but they were here now. They were from different worlds, he'd turned hers upside down, she hadn't had it easy like half the kids who went here, and she was a million miles from the kinds of society girls in the 09er world who acted like everyone should bow at their feet just for breathing the same air as them. Her heart fluttered like the wings of a hummingbird, it was funny how the butterflies in her stomach echoed in sympathy.

It could just the pregnancy hormones but it was possible that she was a little bit in love with Dick Casablancas.

"No, baby, never at you" he said so quietly she wasn't even sure she heard the words but she was relieved, brushing the blond hair from his forehead. That she'd thought his mood had anything to do with her ached in him.

 _How could he explain that she felt like the only solid ground in a lifetime of sinking sands?_

Her phone vibrated against the table, probably Parker checking in for the hundredth time since this afternoon.

"God I need this…" he muttered. _You_... _I need you Cindy, and I don't deserve it._ He thought mournfully kissing along down her jaw sending another quake down her spine as his lips moved to her collarbone. Disapproval lined his face when she glanced at the desk.

"Don't answer it," He rasped raking his gaze over her body. His hands curled around her hips possessively, his fingers looping into the belt loops of her jeans, tugging her body flush against his.

"Dick, shouldn't we talk-?" she panted into his mouth. _Wallace was right, they did need to take lessons in communicating._ _Because Love wasn't a choice and they had to figure this thing out before he stole something even more vital from her._

"No, I can't go there. That's a conversation I just can't have tonight," he said tipping her chin upwards. "I just need to feel what's mine" his eyes pleading quietly for no protests and captured her lips in a desperate gluttonous kiss.

Her thighs trembled as his skillful invasion of her mouth made her toes curl. Emotion clogging her throat as his hands delved under her shirt and cupped her breasts, he twisted and rested her ass on the adjacent desk. Pleasure tinted with splatters of pain as he caught the pebbling nipples in between his fingers. He growled pulling off her shirt and she looked at him nervously as she felt him thicken in his jeans.

"Enjoying the view?" she asked.

"I am actually," he said in a low husky voice, sliding her bra off slim shoulders. "Jesus you are hotter than the Eta Carinae."

"I'd tell you how sexy you are, but I'm sure you are already aware" she admitted biting her lower lip, the smug smile on his face told her he knew it just fine.

"You remember the first time I had you in here like this?" he asked staring at her swollen lips.

Her pulse skittered at the memory, yeah she remembered. Dick had been furious with her ditching him the morning after their unexpected hookup.

Thanks _Tequila_...

He paid some Junior who ran a buy-your-next-test site to hack into her computer the afternoon after their hook-up and asked her if she'd enjoyed her walk of shame from his penthouse, then informed her cockily that he'd enjoyed some footage of their get together but she'd left out the good parts.

She often had the I.T lab late in the afternoon to herself and between the party atmosphere in the dorms and Parkers often busy schedule, and love of awful British boybands… it had become a bit of a sanctuary.

She had done her best to ignore him but when he invoiced her a bill for laundering his bedsheets and asked if she'd any other suggestions since clips of the cctv footage 'were missing all the good bits'. He'd heckled her for a few days while she had gone out of her way to try and avoid him... and then somehow their adolescent bickering and arguing had escalated to her furiously snapping at him and yanking her shirt off on facetime just to shut him up.

"Oh God" she shuddered, mortified at the memory, her body thrumming with tension his gaze was hot and hungry.

He'd confronted her right here in the computer lab and called her a heartless tease before they ravenously stripped one another naked and screwed like they were possessed. _Was that sexy?_ It had felt frenzied at the time like their bodies had been starving and they were going to feast until they couldn't take anymore.

"I need more of that," he said, the carnal tone lacing his words going straight for her core as his hands reached for her black jeans, flicking the button open with his clever fingers and yanked them down her legs.

"Then you showed up at the hotel pool to tell me you never wanted to see me again… how you were so disgusted with yourself but before you'd finished you ended up riding me in the steam room?" he said sucking her earlobe between his teeth. _Best. Sex. Ever_... He didn't want to talk, he just wanted to be in control, to be buried deep in the one thing he knew his dad couldn't ruin for him.

"Then you threatened to take a chainsaw to my nuts if I told anyone" he chuckled, his fingers skimming the tips of her green underwear and she gasped as he slipped a finger into her wet heat. "Spread your legs for me baby…" he smirked coyly as her hips wiggled with need.

 _So goddamn tight…_


	39. Chapter 39

Vinnie was singing along to Kiss by Prince with his feet up on his desk and attempting to balance a pencil upright on his finger. He didn't look at her as she placed the small box of Devil's Food Cake onto the table beside him.

"Baby Mars! Unexpected… I would have thought you would be off in college someplace, girl gone wild" he smirked. Her presence here was not a surprise. He had demanded she bring him something from the bakery two streets over before he even entertained her questions.

Veronica clenched her teeth hard enough to crack a walnut as she handed over the evidence file her dad had 'not' given her before going home after their dinner.

"Would you like a shovel?" she quipped while he opened it and devoured a piece of the icing with his fingers.

Vinnie Van Lowe's office was a strange blend of citrus floor cleaner and the scent of Thai food drifting upwards from the streets downstairs, but nothing was as nauseating as the way his eyes roved over her body then flicked back to the tablet on his desk. Her shoulders went down in relief when he finally perused over the dates and names her father had asked her to follow up with him.

"Steve Botanda…" he murmured flicking through his illegible notes. The guy kept his case files written up in code, using an old football series playbook as a cypher. Even now she hadn't been able to crack it. He probably changed it for every other case.

"Botando" Veronica corrected.

"Meh… potato… tomahto" he shrugged, picking another bit of fruit from the cake and popping it inot his mouth.

 _If he asked her to get him coffee… God help him…._

"I thought that famous Mars gut didn't go astray?" he said shaking his head as he looked at the small bug in his hand. The hunch obviously wasn't going to pay off.

"You've never seen this before?" she prompted, eager to wrap this up so she could go and see Logan. He'd called a few times during dinner with her dad, but she hadn't been able to answer. There were also several texts from Parker, and two missed calls from Wallace.

"Which lawyers asking?" Vinnie retorted quirking an eyebrow.

"None. Just trying to track down a possible lead," Veronica shrugged folding her arms across her chest.

"One woman operation now daddy's gone Pro?" he jested.

"Can you just stop wasting my time?" she asked impatiently, as fun as this little dance was between them, her tolerance was low after that visit tonight with her father to Letty Navarro's house. She wasn't holding up too well, and Weevil's niece and younger sister were possibly going to end up in foster care if their aunt couldn't take them in.

"Interesting, usually ladies love delayed gratification," he shrugged standing up and rounding his desk. She rolled her eyes at the double-meaning in his retort. "It's not one of mine." He told her finally. "Low tech" he commented hinting at the cupboard behind him.

"You _really_ going to brag about the size of your toys?" Veronica asked wryly taking the small plastic evidence bag from him and sliding the file back into her bag.

No one had hired him to look into Dean Odells wife, or Professor Landry, though he had made several utterances that he wished they had.

"Blackmails good for business" he shrugged.

Vinnie hadn't been the one to bug Professor Landry's phone, and she doubted Hopkins or Landen would have gone to those kind of lengths. Hopkins mostly dealt with divorce cases, and Landen was more a bounty hunter than a P.I. neither really had the inclination to use these kind of invasive tools.

"Back to where I started," Veronica muttered.

"Then how about I join you. You can be the Starsky to my Hooch" he grinned. His reference was so off-base it worked in earning him a smile from her.

"With attention to details like that… I think I'm good" she said shaking her head.

"Oh come on… I'm between cases right now… and if it works out, I could be needing a new assistant" he countered.

He recognised talent when he saw it, the petite blond sleuth could be a real asset.

"Your mother is your assistant," Veronica reminded him.

"Yeah but she also tells me to watch my cholesterol," he said dismissively. "What do you say?" he said before breaking out into a rendition of My Girl by The Temptations. "I got all the riches baby… that any man can claim…." he caterwauled as she shook her head at his ridiculousness.

"Goodnight Vinnie," Veronica sighed turning to leave as he changed tracks and the butchered sounds of Bill Withers – Ain't No Sunshine followed her down the stairs into the cool night air.


	40. Chapter 40

(James Bay - Us)

"I was going to tell you…" Mac pleaded her grey eyes looked misty as she climbed up from the floor.

""Looks like you get the part. Congratulations." Dick accused her throwing the letter at her. His blonde hair was tousled and his eyes spat fire. He looked like an angry angel.

Their lust-filled interlude had ended quickly soured when he'd started picking up the contents of her that scattered across the floor and he found the pamphlets and lab results from Neptune's Women's clinic detailing her ultrasound appointment.

"It wasn't like that!" she sobbed her voice was high and unsteady.

Turns out… he was mad at her because they had definitely not been having the same conversation before he'd stripped her bare and drove his body into hers until they were exhausted. Even now he couldn't reconcile that not so long ago her petite body had been wrapped around him like a clambering vine.

Now she looked poisonous and he jerked his arm away from her as if someone were moving him remotely without his permission.

"It wasn't like you've been keeping the fact you are _pregnant_ from me?" Dick said spitting the words angrily at her.

Shame-faced and still half-naked she bit her lip while her eyes welled with tears. He studied her face for a moment and then laughed bitterly.

"Is it even mine?" he demanded recalling how she'd been dating Bronson for weeks while hooking up with him in secret.

She opened her mouth to answer but he cut her off, letting out a hard laugh.

"No wait… of course it is. You wouldn't have invested all this time in making sure I'd no reason to doubt it if I hadn't been the one who knocked you up" he spat his blue eyes like chips of ice as he pulled on his jeans.

"You think I planned this?" Mac asked in disbelief blood draining from her face.

"I'm guessing Dr Dolittle just didn't have a bank account padded with enough zeros for you. I guess it helps since we are obviously attracted to each other. Clever though for making me think this whole thing was my idea…" He said bitterly yanking his white shirt over his head.

 _He'd been such an idiot! Seduction and Strategy…_

A lump lodged in her throat. Of all the ways she'd pictured this conversation going, never in a million years had she thought it would go like _this_. He'd obviously taken her silence as a confession because he charged forwards taking up all the space and crowding her against the wall.

"Why are you acting so offended? Not one managed to draw me in like this. Of all the little gold-diggers I've met in my lifetime, and believe me there's been plenty. I've met some of the best. I guess you've been studying me longer though. First Beaves. Then me? Sorry, you had to endure more than a few mindless minutes." he growled his hand gripping her face and making her look up at him.

"Please, Dick…" Mac cried, every word out of his beautiful mouth was like a dagger.

 _Such a pretty little liar… every time she'd arched her back wantonly pleading with him to take her… all lies... the whole time..._

"Oh you've had quite enough of that. Good job." Dick assured her mockingly unmoved by the tears falling from her eyes. "Mind if I ask you something though? The things you do…" he swallowed trying to shut down the memories of how she had used that lush body to clamp around him like a fist and rode him perfectly as if someone had given her the playbook for his dick. His arms braced by her shoulders he studied her face.

"The way you fucked me almost insane every time… you were behind that test in High School…" he said feeling his face twist. The horror in those eyes belied the truth and his heart sunk like a stone and he went to take a step back from her.

 _Manipulative conniving bitch._ "Wrong answer."

"I know you are angry with me right now…" she pleaded, her small hands gripping his shirt but he held her wrists and pried them firmly away. The temptation to press his mouth to hers or tell her to get to her knees was like a tug of war inside his body. If he smashed his fist into the wall, he'd go right through the brickwork he was sure of it. _He'd always joked that the devil was a beautiful woman. This harpy was going to drag him straight to Hell._

"Get dressed," he flung at her. Amused he watched bitterly as she blushed, embarrassed as if just now realizing she was still naked. "Little late to act shy now. Been there. Done that."

Hating that he'd noticed too. Interest stirring all over again and drawing his attention to her perfect breasts. The gentle swell of life was barely showing signs yet, but somehow, he was filled with primal awareness that she was carrying his baby.

He knew it would be churlish of her to refuse, to wield her nakedness as a weapon but didn't, she shyly ducked under his arm averting her gaze, she made light work hurriedly tugging on her shirt and jeans. Wide eyes assessing him her arms hugging protectively over her stomach, and the gesture alone made him furious. Images of what their children might look like were hard to shake. Curiosity flared in his gut when he recalled the line about upcoming ultrasound appointments.

 _She might have_ deceived _him, but he wouldn't fail his blood this time._

"Too late to find your running shoes" he spat eyes narrowing on her with unveiled hostility. "The horse has already bolted, you wanted a Casablanca's baby. You got one… but no way am I letting you keep it."

Mac paled. "What are you saying?"

"Let's not pretend when there's no one else around to benefit from your little performance," he said regarding her for a long moment. "How much money?"

"Money? How _dare_ you!" she snapped grabbing her bag and reaching for the door.

"Holding out won't get you a better offer. Look me in the eye... and name your price. Honeymoon's over. There are no divorce papers to sign. A baby is no reason to continue this farce and considering the amount of manipulation you've employed to get this far. I won't be leaving any child of mine to be raised by a heartless viper who took advantage because I was drunk.. and in a dark place..." Dick growled yanking her back to face him. "So. How. Much?"


	41. Chapter 41

(Maroon 5 - One More Night)

"So. How. Much?"

His glacial chips of sapphire were trained on her from under a tumble of blonde hair, the hardened edge making her pulse hickup. She looked so... guileless, long lashed smoky grey wide eyes. Her lips were pinched and bloodless as Mac tried to pull her wrist from his larger hand but she wasn't strong enough to break his grip. Part of him wanted to hurt her for having trapped him, the other wanted to curse her out for rejecting _them_ and playing this sick game of revenge.

He was going to be a father.

 _A child doesn't need a mother to survive, especially not one scheming enough to play you like a pro,_ he reminded himself firmly. _Beauty was her disguise, women, there is always a catch..._ She'd had an agenda... and she was carrying his heir it was _payoff time_ , only she wasn't going to like the consequences. He'd go to court and take full custody.

 _Blistering scorn._

He radiated angry authority, wide-set shoulders, lean hips and she knew from the predatory glint in his eyes that Dick Casablancas was not a man to make your enemy, especially in these circumstances. A convulsive shiver ran down her spine. Now she wondered how much of his easy-going nature was simply a well-crafted mirage.

An act.

 _Peter Pan was really the Big Bad Wolf._

The barrage of words finally stopped fluttering around her shocked brain long enough for the cold hard truth to sink in.

Heart racing she stared at him.

He was completely and utterly ruthless. The pampered prince and his trust fund just throwing money around and thinking he could take her baby away without a qualm. Did he want to pay her off like some broodmare?

 _I think I'm going to be sick._ The look in his eyes threatened to stop her breathing. _He'd accused her of the unforgivable..._

"I told you, Cindy, I don't negotiate. What does someone usually pay whores?" he growled a low warning in his voice and her heckles began to rise as his expression turned even icier.

He thought he could treat her like an expensive prostitute? _She was going to be the mother of his child!_

"I don't want it!" she shot back defiantly her eyes flashing like a rare SoCal storm. The fierce look on her face was unmistakable as she tried again to tug her arm out of his grasp. For a moment there was silence as he tried to make sense of her words. His blue eyes narrowed. He didn't believe the renewed pool of tears in her misty-silver eyes, his father had been a consummate liar. Hell, Dick was the product of his very first con, switching out the contraceptive pill for the placebo of a naïve co-ed from a wealthy conservative family.

 _An abortion?_ Instinctively he balked against the idea. His eyes surveyed the flat plane of her stomach.

"Don't want it?" he growled his fingers tightening their grip and pulled her petite body against his, towering over her.

"You think I'm suggesting-?" Mac gasped horrified. "Let go of me! I don't want _anything_ from you!"

 _I wanted you!_

"How reassuring, except that's not what you were saying less than five minutes ago when I fucked you on the floor, you wanted my hands all over you then" his sharp features looked cruel in that moment. His body hardened, blood rushing hotter and faster through his veins at the memory. She felt the heat creep into her cheeks.

"This is not what I wanted... If you think I'd agree to... I'm not the person you think I am" she cried and she felt a tear slide down her cheek. Lightly she touched her body, fingertips resting on her stomach where the baby must lie- _his baby._ The muscle in his jaw jerked as one hand cupped her face almost tenderly.

"No, don't tell me! This is the part where you tell me how I got it all wrong… and you were actually a virgin!" he mocked the sardonic tone of his voice cutting her heart to pieces, his fingers winding into her hair. _Did she think he'd settle for visiting rights? She was a skillful little seductress but he hadn't completely lost his mind._

"Just stop it! Please!" Mac sobbed in a voice not more than a whisper. "How can you treat me this way?"

 _Like she was nothing more than some trailer park surrogate?_

"Because lust is cheap, and my pride will survive. We are tied together forever but I assure you, give me any trouble, and I'll call my old buddy Duncan's dad up for a favor and have that Turing Kane scholarship yanked out from under you," his voice was hard, harsher than she'd ever heard.

 _Blackmail? He'd go as far as to ruin her? They both knew his brother had had a vengeful streak..._

"I don't know why it has to be like this…" she pleaded, she looked stricken for a moment.

"Don't lose sleep over it. I'm just making it clear we will be playing by my rules. You are in way over your head" he told her ruthlessly his hot breath against her ear. Because everything hurt and his words sounded like a slamming door.

"Richard, Please!" Mac sobbed wrapping her arms around herself to keep from falling apart _. "I love you."_

He chuckled low and deep but there was no warmth in that sound. She felt apprehension build up as ice-blue eyes lingered on her face in a moment of surrealism and she was acutely aware of his focus on her lips before he pulled her forward into a merciless demanding kiss, turning her bones into liquid fire. The muscles in his shoulders rolling with the motion as his arms wrapped around her like iron bars. Groaning as his treacherous body registered how hers surrendered and nestled into him.

 _What a fool he was. She's lying, his talented little Jezebel, but fuck he wanted to believe it. They weren't just going to curl up and cuddle watching some chick-flick after what had just happened._ _Her betrayal was a thunderstorm they'd never ride out_.. the flesh had no morals like the mind.

"Damn you…" it was raw and deep in his throat. His mouth tore away from hers, and he put his palm flat to the door behind them. The sudden absence of his warm body leaving her feeling bereft. A short sharp curse escaped his lips, keeping his face turned from her so she couldn't see the tears that glistened.

He didn't look at her as he reached for the door handle and unlocked it.

"Just like that?" her voice had a raw quality to it then but he didn't trust that anguished shock for one minute.

"I'll see my lawyer tomorrow. Get a contract drawn up," his rough-voiced statement burned truth hollow in the pit of her gut when she saw the grim resolve in his features when the words simply spilled out of him.

 _He didn't believe her… so why..?_ She choked up, tears preventing her from speaking. He had no intention of standing by her.

He'd just declared they stood on a battlefield, and nothing could have hurt more than that rejection as she watched him walk away.

"Tempting as it might be to get my money's worth... I have no appetite for liars," he shrugged casually pulling the door open tossing a cold-blooded decree over his shoulder.


	42. Chapter 42

(Aron Wright - Look After You)

"He was so angry," Mac sobbed, her grief-stricken face hidden behind a waterfall of mahogany as she explained to her roommate Parker what had gone down with her boyfriend Dick Casablancas this afternoon. "He threatened to get my scholarship pulled."

"Please tell me you slapped the shit out of him," Parker said as she sat on the edge of her bed rubbing her back. "It's empty threats…he can't do that, can he?"

Her petite roommate just shrugged, barely registering the comforting gesture. She honestly didn't know how much leverage Dick Casablancas could have over her partial scholarship. She hadn't grown up with his big fancy house or his multimillion dollar trust fund. The thought of calling her dad and asking about their medical insurance had frightened her without the added stress of a possessive lover she hadn't even told her parents yet.

"I won't be wiped out of my baby's life" Mac swore, her bullet-grey eyes glimmered with determination.

"Of course you won't. Commander Waterford can go screw himself!" Parker agreed and Mac felt her heart catapult around her chest. "There's only so much that having money can accomplish."

Money and the right connections could get you away with murder. Mac thought recalling Aaron Echolls satisfied smirk after he'd walked free from court even though he'd brutally killed teenage socialite Lily Kane.

"I just don't know what he is thinking" Mac said quietly resting her forehead in her hands.

 _Yes you do, he thinks you are a whore and that you set out to trap him,_ she thought bitterly. Mac looked miserably around her bedroom and every corner felt like a crime scene, how many hours had they spent in here together? How many different ways had he kissed and marked her, branding her as his? She thought even if they weren't exactly at the love part yet, that at least they'd had mutual trust.

Seems they'd had neither.

Just a carnal appreciation for hot sex that drove them both into delirium and right into this mess.

"I know what I'm thinking… that arsenic is too easy to trace," Parker sniped angrily as there was a knock at the door.

The image of Dick was split in two inside her head, in one he hovered above her, his body delving into hers, peppering her with kisses and those blue eyes drowning every doubt she'd ever had about getting involved with Cassidy's brother, and the other was that cold wall of ice he put up as he read that letter then turned on her.

The pathetic hopeful ache that wanted it to be Dick as Parker opened the door crumbled when she stood aside and Wallace came in, still wearing his basketball uniform, followed by Amira.

Wallace raked his brown eyes over the slender girl in her oversized Care Bear pyjamas sitting on the small dorm bed. She looked sickly and pale under the artificial lights and her quiet vulnerability made him want to find Dick Casablanca's and drive his fist into him repeatedly. It reminded him too closely of the scene during senior year when they'd found her wrapped in nothing but a bedsheet in a hotel room after Cassidy Casablancas had threatened her with a gun. His hands curled into fists as Amira approached in a soft voice, sitting down beside her.

"Hey" she offered, giving her a weak smile and accepting a small bag of snacks.

"Nothing like a crisis bringing people together" Amira said awkwardly.

He hated seeing Mac like this. This was a quiet violence that men did to women and girls almost every day. They could turn and walk away but they left their marks behind, on that soft their skin and in the bodies they had coveted so badly… and in their remnants was often cradled in motherly arms holding the children caught in the crossfire.

His mother had always taught him that a real man takes care of his responsibilities. _He should claim his family._ They didn't offer many words, but experience had taught Wallace, sometimes you there was nothing you could say, but you could always serve the body in times of crisis, and now hers was a vessel for two. Yes, she carried Dick's flesh and blood, but Mac was flesh and blood too and that 09er asshole should be taking care of her instead of having her worried in her condition.

 _How any man could punish or abandon a woman when it took two of them to get into this predicament?_

"I thought you at the game?" Parker asked.

"I switched over after the second half," Wallace shrugged and she nodded before closing the door.

Piz would be coming along soon having made some comment about vitamins and ginger tea to help with her nausea and that's what made him appreciate what a good guy his roommate was, there was no name calling, no judgement. Just a guy stepping up to be responsible to help a distressed girl in trouble.

Wallace would be finding the time to have a conversation with his former classmate about how to treat women. That he was sacrificing something good for a boyhood trauma.

"Father of the freaking year," Amira muttered in disgust after Parker finished giving them a recap of the incident in the computer lab, the more they heard, the more it appalled him. Tears welled in Mac's eyes and she quickly took a deep breath. Tension streaked through him and the muscles in his jaw almost snapped to keep from cursing.

"I don't wanna talk about it" Mac choked out, tugging the sleeve of her shirt down over the bruising on her wrist.

"What exactly did he say?" Piz asked before he gave him an imperceptible shake of his head to let it go.

"Well I have plenty to say, I'd like to give Mr Casablanca's a piece of my mind" Parker said passing over the dip.

The fear and uncertainty of what was going through Dick's mind tonight and what was going to happen after her ultrasound tomorrow made Mac clutch the pillow against her stomach tighter.

"Are you alright?" Amira asked Mac as she closed her eyes, a sickening wave of weakness rolling through her stomach.

"Yeah, it's just nausea. It passes" she assured her quickly.

 _Was there just too much ugly emotional baggage between them now? Would Dick ever forgive her?_

Would she ever be able to forgive the harsh things he had spewed at her tonight?

Why had he been so upset when he first came over tonight? It all tumbled around in her thoughts like an overworked washing machine giving her a headache.

Wallace barely said anything, just wrapped a big arm around his petite friend while they piled onto the available chairs to watch The Goonies. Words right now were useless, and Veronica was out at Vinnie Van Lowe's chasing down a lead on Dean Odells murder case, on Weevil's murder case. He'd agreed with Logan to let him handle it, apparently there was more going on with Dick but he wasn't clued in yet on all the details.

He smirked a little at the thought of Weevil finding out what Dick had done tonight, did Hearst even have a big enough flagpole?

"What?" Piz said arching an eyebrow and Mac's questioning grey eyes met his.

"Remember the first time I met Veronica?" he answered with a lopsided grin and she gave him an amused tearful laugh.

"We are not tying Dick naked to a flagpole" she scolded him.

"Why not?" Parker protested. "It's the first good idea I've heard all night."

Logan sprung up quickly as he heard the sound of the penthouse door open. He'd been worried sick and Madison had been less than co-operative in handing over her password for her old **Find My Dick** app she'd installed on her ex-boyfriends phone. He held his tongue as his dishevelled roommate came in, he'd obviously been drinking and his outward mien said he was itching for a confrontation. He'd been gone for hours and the run down from Wallace earlier told him more or less what to anticipate.

Tossing his coat on the chair he looked Logan expectantly in the eye. He'd spent several hours at a fraternity party on campus and in the morning he would be arranging a discreet security detail to keep tabs on his cunning little lover. Even now he couldn't fathom how easily she had sucked him in. The scent of her still on his skin made him itch to hold her, to seek her out and nuzzle his face in the curve of her neck.

 _But he wouldn't...Because Love could warp your mind, it was nothing but a placebo._

"Did you know?" Dick asked point-blank.

The silence that greeted his question was all the answer he needed. Hanging his head like he'd been waiting by the gallows. Sometimes if Logan's words didn't say it, his face usually did.

 _Of course his best friend would have been drawn into this web, she was an effective little spider. Fuck my life._

"You were supposed to have my back" he said with a bitter laugh and turned to go to his room.

"I do, but sometimes you don't know when to get out of your own way." Logan retorted.

"Unless you are likely to get a positive DNA result in this paternity test. This is none of your business, its between me and her." Dick told him firmly slamming his bedroom door. No doubt Veronica would be putting him firmly in the crosshairs of her cornflower blues after she wrapped up her latest case.

Inviting Logan into this would be like offering up his throat to a wolf. Madison might have been all fake laugh, fake boobs and no calories… but she'd been honest, not like his so-called friend who'd omitted some crucial information on more than one occasion.

 _Newsflash: People always find out! Especially if you are dating Nancy Drew._

Tomorrow he was booking into his own suite, maybe start looking for some off beach real estate so he could avoid seeing his dad.

(Aron Wright - Look After You)

"He was so angry," Mac sobbed, her grief-stricken face hidden behind a waterfall of mahogany as she explained to her roommate Parker what had gone down with her boyfriend Dick Casablancas this afternoon. "He threatened to get my scholarship pulled."

"Please tell me you slapped the shit out of him," Parker said as she sat on the edge of her bed rubbing her back. "It's empty threats…he can't do that, can he?"

Her petite roommate just shrugged, barely registering the comforting gesture. She honestly didn't know how much leverage Dick Casablancas could have over her partial scholarship. She hadn't grown up with his big fancy house or his multimillion dollar trust fund. The thought of calling her dad and asking about their medical insurance had frightened her without the added stress of a possessive lover she hadn't even told her parents yet.

"I won't be wiped out of my baby's life" Mac swore, her bullet-grey eyes glimmered with determination.

"Of course you won't. Commander Waterford can go screw himself!" Parker agreed and Mac felt her heart catapult around her chest. "There's only so much that having money can accomplish."

Money and the right connections could get you away with murder. Mac thought recalling Aaron Echolls satisfied smirk after he'd walked free from court even though he'd brutally killed teenage socialite Lily Kane.

"I just don't know what he is thinking" Mac said quietly resting her forehead in her hands.

 _Yes you do, he thinks you are a whore and that you set out to trap him,_ she thought bitterly. Mac looked miserably around her bedroom and every corner felt like a crime scene, how many hours had they spent in here together? How many different ways had he kissed and marked her, branding her as his? She thought even if they weren't exactly at the love part yet, that at least they'd had mutual trust.

Seems they'd had neither.

Just a carnal appreciation for hot sex that drove them both into delirium and right into this mess.

"I know what I'm thinking… that arsenic is too easy to trace," Parker sniped angrily as there was a knock at the door.

The image of Dick was split in two inside her head, in one he hovered above her, his body delving into hers, peppering her with kisses and those blue eyes drowning every doubt she'd ever had about getting involved with Cassidy's brother, and the other was that cold wall of ice he put up as he read that letter then turned on her.

The pathetic hopeful ache that wanted it to be Dick as Parker opened the door crumbled when she stood aside and Wallace came in, still wearing his basketball uniform, followed by Amira.

Wallace raked his brown eyes over the slender girl in her oversized Care Bear pyjamas sitting on the small dorm bed. She looked sickly and pale under the artificial lights and her quiet vulnerability made him want to find Dick Casablanca's and drive his fist into him repeatedly. It reminded him too closely of the scene during senior year when they'd found her wrapped in nothing but a bedsheet in a hotel room after Cassidy Casablancas had threatened her with a gun. His hands curled into fists as Amira approached in a soft voice, sitting down beside her.

"Hey" she offered, giving her a weak smile and accepting a small bag of snacks.

"Nothing like a crisis bringing people together" Amira said awkwardly.

He hated seeing Mac like this. This was a quiet violence that men did to women and girls almost every day. They could turn and walk away but they left their marks behind, on that soft their skin and in the bodies they had coveted so badly… and in their remnants was often cradled in motherly arms holding the children caught in the crossfire.

His mother had always taught him that a real man takes care of his responsibilities. _He should claim his family._ They didn't offer many words, but experience had taught Wallace, sometimes you there was nothing you could say, but you could always serve the body in times of crisis, and now hers was a vessel for two. Yes, she carried Dick's flesh and blood, but Mac was flesh and blood too and that 09er asshole should be taking care of her instead of having her worried in her condition.

 _How any man could punish or abandon a woman when it took two of them to get into this predicament?_

"I thought you at the game?" Parker asked.

"I switched over after the second half," Wallace shrugged and she nodded before closing the door.

Piz would be coming along soon having made some comment about vitamins and ginger tea to help with her nausea and that's what made him appreciate what a good guy his roommate was, there was no name calling, no judgement. Just a guy stepping up to be responsible to help a distressed girl in trouble.

Wallace would be finding the time to have a conversation with his former classmate about how to treat women. That he was sacrificing something good for a boyhood trauma.

"Father of the freaking year," Amira muttered in disgust after Parker finished giving them a recap of the incident in the computer lab, the more they heard, the more it appalled him. Tears welled in Mac's eyes and she quickly took a deep breath. Tension streaked through him and the muscles in his jaw almost snapped to keep from cursing.

"I don't wanna talk about it" Mac choked out, tugging the sleeve of her shirt down over the bruising on her wrist.

"What exactly did he say?" Piz asked before he gave him an imperceptible shake of his head to let it go.

"Well I have plenty to say, I'd like to give Mr Casablanca's a piece of my mind" Parker said passing over the dip.

The fear and uncertainty of what was going through Dick's mind tonight and what was going to happen after her ultrasound tomorrow made Mac clutch the pillow against her stomach tighter.

"Are you alright?" Amira asked Mac as she closed her eyes, a sickening wave of weakness rolling through her stomach.

"Yeah, it's just nausea. It passes" she assured her quickly.

 _Was there just too much ugly emotional baggage between them now? Would Dick ever forgive her?_

Would she ever be able to forgive the harsh things he had spewed at her tonight?

Why had he been so upset when he first came over tonight? It all tumbled around in her thoughts like an overworked washing machine giving her a headache.

Wallace barely said anything, just wrapped a big arm around his petite friend while they piled onto the available chairs to watch The Goonies. Words right now were useless, and Veronica was out at Vinnie Van Lowe's chasing down a lead on Dean Odells murder case, on Weevil's murder case. He'd agreed with Logan to let him handle it, apparently there was more going on with Dick but he wasn't clued in yet on all the details.

He smirked a little at the thought of Weevil finding out what Dick had done tonight, did Hearst even have a big enough flagpole?

"What?" Piz said arching an eyebrow and Mac's questioning grey eyes met his.

"Remember the first time I met Veronica?" he answered with a lopsided grin and she gave him an amused tearful laugh.

"We are not tying Dick naked to a flagpole" she scolded him.

"Why not?" Parker protested. "It's the first good idea I've heard all night."

Logan sprung up quickly as he heard the sound of the penthouse door open. He'd been worried sick and Madison had been less than co-operative in handing over her password for her old **Find My Dick** app she'd installed on her ex-boyfriends phone. He held his tongue as his dishevelled roommate came in, he'd obviously been drinking and his outward mien said he was itching for a confrontation. He'd been gone for hours and the run down from Wallace earlier told him more or less what to anticipate.

Tossing his coat on the chair he looked Logan expectantly in the eye. He'd spent several hours at a fraternity party on campus and in the morning he would be arranging a discreet security detail to keep tabs on his cunning little lover. Even now he couldn't fathom how easily she had sucked him in. The scent of her still on his skin made him itch to hold her, to seek her out and nuzzle his face in the curve of her neck.

 _But he wouldn't...Because Love could warp your mind, it was nothing but a placebo._

"Did you know?" Dick asked point-blank.

The silence that greeted his question was all the answer he needed. Hanging his head like he'd been waiting by the gallows. Sometimes if Logan's words didn't say it, his face usually did.

 _Of course his best friend would have been drawn into this web, she was an effective little spider. Fuck my life._

"You were supposed to have my back" he said with a bitter laugh and turned to go to his room.

"I do, but sometimes you don't know when to get out of your own way." Logan retorted.

"Unless you are likely to get a positive DNA result in this paternity test. This is none of your business, its between me and her." Dick told him firmly slamming his bedroom door. No doubt Veronica would be putting him firmly in the crosshairs of her cornflower blues after she wrapped up her latest case.

Inviting Logan into this would be like offering up his throat to a wolf. Madison might have been all fake laugh, fake boobs and no calories… but she'd been honest, not like his so-called friend who'd omitted some crucial information on more than one occasion.

 _Newsflash: People always find out! Especially if you are dating Nancy Drew._

Build himself a place he'd only recently realized he'd never had before... a home.

A dark, hungry part of his soul wanted to go and find Mac

Then he'd check in with the firm he had hired to run a background check on his baby momma, even now he was desperately sniffing for control like a dog desperate for a bone.

Tomorrow he was booking into his own suite, maybe start looking for some off beach real estate so he could avoid seeing his dad.


	43. Chapter 43

(Three Days Grace - Just like you)

"Inside of you are two wolves…"

Dick Casablancas didn't give a shit whatever any of his mother's fancy therapists had tried to tell him that summer in Europe after Cassidy's death. It was all just an expensive way to tell him what he already knew. That grief was complicated, and that mourning someone didn't even have to start when someone was dead. You could grieve the loss of a family you'd never had. His feelings about his father were wrapped up in so many layers that he was sure it would take a lifetime to untangle them, and even then he might never be truly free.

 _Did he even get to hold a grudge when the abuse had never really been physical?_

It felt stupid to envy Logan that his hatred towards his dad could be so clean cut. Aaron Echolls had screwed then murdered the guys girlfriend, he'd driven the guys mother to kill herself and left so many mental and physical scars on Logan's self-confidence that the dude literally went to pieces if he didn't have someone to hold onto because he was convinced deep down that he was worth nothing.

Almost the exact opposite lesson Richard Casablancas had taught him growing up, that the Casablancas men were untouchable, that life was a high octane pleasure ride. That they in fact had no haters, and that life's ills and the consequences for his actions were irrelevant because he was Teflon.

It had taken him a long time to see it but Dick realized his dad was no less a monster.

He was so big on family, yet any time they'd spoken over the last four months he always left half of it out.

 _Cassidy.. the family dead weight that now felt like he permanently carried around on his shoulders._

It was impossible to separate the love for a father and camping trips, the sneaky shots of expensive bourbon and cigars at the club with the hate for a selfish dickbag who'd bankrupted half the town and had left his youngest kid to the attentions of a sexual predator.

 _Never let them see your underbelly because they will rip you apart._

Same as how no matter how hard he tried to see the killer everyone else did when they thought of Cassidy, he just couldn't separate his own mistakes that had led that shy geeky smart kid to end the lives of so innocent people like Meg Manning. In retrospect, he'd seen him changing, there had been signs… a cruel streak forming he hadn't quite recognised at the time.

 _When he really thought about it… with a track record like that… what rights did he have to even think about having custody of his baby?_

"I'm sorry, Logan. That part of my life is not up for discussion," he'd growled angrily at his roommate this morning before storming out to meet with the personal crisis management expert his stepfather kept on retainer. He didn't want to talking about impending fatherhood with a guy who'd kept it from him. He certainly felt zero guilt about moving out. He could lose it. Get angry and throw some punches but that wasn't his way. He wasn't going to let this shit drive him into a bottle.

 _Stop sinking into places you have outgrown. Friendship isn't a pyramid scheme and perhaps it was time to put this one into foreclosure. Long is the road, short is the life._

His friendship with Logan had always been beyond questioned, he'd been willing to take secrets to the grave to protect him but after finding out his so-called buddy had been screwing Madison during winter break. Dick found himself doubting if that loyalty only went in one direction.

He stared at the text from the real estate agent he'd met with an hour ago.

 **Congratulations Duck, the offer has been accepted. The Condo is now yours. I'll forward you the details, its been a pleasure doing business. Quinn from Halo Realty.**

A problem solved. _Even if proofreading hadn't caught the obvious typo from her autocorrect._

He looked out at the horizon and wished life could really be as simple as blue skies and sandy beaches. It was hard to appreciate the beauty of a superficial life when the blinkers were finally off, now Hearst felt claustrophobic.

Fate had a gross sense of humour, of course his fantasy fodder would happen to be the one woman who should have stayed completely off-limits.

Cindy MacKenzie was probably the most complicated conundrum of them all. She carried so many labels it was like announcing Danaerys Targaryan.

His lover. _So sexy it made his nuts ache in a fuck you-up-against-the-wall, hand-in-your-pants kind of way._

The mother of his unborn child.

 _Fuck… the thought of her gorgeous curves filling out with his seed were going to make the next few months keeping his hands off her even harder._

His dead brother's girlfriend, a girl who still discreetly packed an extra dress in her backpack after the trauma his brother had caused.

The scheming harlot who'd stolen his heart and toyed with him.

 _It was never going to go well, son._

He shoved away from the rueful image of her tear-filled expression last night. He wouldn't spend a day not thinking about that look she gave him.

 _"Richard, Please… I love you!"_

Pain flashed across his features. His very own beautiful destruction.

 _Hatred was complicated when you felt it with a broken heart._


	44. Chapter 44

(James McArthur - Recovery)

"You are the biggest misogynistic asshole in Neptune Dick Casablancas! Maybe even the State!" Parker declared and he turned to see the brazen blonde stomping after him so angry she could barely speak civilly. She had been on her way across campus after psych 101 to meet with Mac and Veronica for the ultrasound appointment.

"Wow, what a greeting!" Dick groaned softly and scrubbed a hand down his face.

 _Clearly, Parker didn't fall into the Logan camp of handling this with kid-glove treatment._

"How could you? How _dare_ you?" she demanded shutting the door he'd been about to open, her hands on her hips in a prim little gesture.

"Always a pleasure" Dick murmured his tone bitterly rueful and moved his gaze to the tall blonde, there was no denying that Parker was a very stunning girl, standing in her strappy sandals and floral sundress. A few months ago he probably would have tried to persuade her to share his bed in retaliation but Parker was clearly Team Mac. His throat was cramped and sore.

 _Had she been complicit in Cindy's little scheme? She should be pleased, her deceitful little friend had hit the jackpot._

"I hope you paid them by the hour because campus police just escorted your little _'security detail'_ off the quad," she snapped confidently her blue-green eyes spitting daggers at him. The two men camped outside their dorm had been as subtle as the FBI in a low budget action movie. Mac had been up since the early hours with morning sickness, and she was skipping class to go speak with a student counselor.

"I'm well aware. Regardless of the cost, this is one battle I'm going to win." His voice was dangerously soft. He clenched one fist over his backpack glaring right back.

Her eyes narrowed. "You don't have a shred of remorse do you?"

Mac was a rare gem, she was a mess right now and worried about her parents covering the cost of the ultrasound and medical bills and he was threatening to pull strings to remove her scholarship? _How could someone treat her this way?_ Out of all the people who'd been there for her after the rape, Mac had never once slut-shamed her and she'd used those badass cyber-skills to remove some awful images of her with a shaved head some assholes from the fraternity had posted on the student message forum.

 _She was a good person and he treated her like she was beyond contempt. She deserved better!_

"You wouldn't be the first to say so." He gritted waiting for her to get out of his way and open the door.

"Yeah well, truth be told I find you repulsive" she snapped.

"There's no reason her delicate condition can't be resolved to our mutual satisfaction. Smart college chicks sell their eggs all the time, I'm sure she will get over it." Dick said impatiently. He'd shown up at the front lines with a purpose. He knew what he had to lose, and he'd fight to protect it.

 _She'd probably forget this ever happened..._

Her blue-green eyes widened in utter disbelief. _Was he serious? Her **Delicate Condition**? He really thought Mac would just accept being sidelined?_

Parker hadn't wanted to believe it but then a courier had shown up after their first class and handed Mac a strongly worded legal document warning her off spreading this story to the tabloids or she would be facing a court case and any attempt to do so would be used in future custodial proceedings. He was a millionaire and he was using his wealth to coerce her friend into submission.

 _It was a ruthless unforgivable tactic._

"You've made it a big show of trying to convince her you hold all the cards. You are clearly deranged… putting her under _surveillance_? She isn't going to give up her baby just because you crook your little finger!" she warned.

"Then we get a DNA test and let the courts decide," Dick informed her in a low growl his hand tightening on the handle of the door.

"How can you be so **hateful**?" Parker snarled shoving against his broad chest. He suppressed the angry retort he wanted to make and straightened, stepping out of the way as several students exited the building but even then the slender blonde refused to move.

"Why not?" he said bitterly. _Hell if he actually knew what he wanted._ Something leaped in those blue eyes and she folded her arms, she looked at him questioningly. His words boasted a cruel indifference, but there was something raw in the way he'd responded just now. A layer that she hadn't noticed at first beneath his scathing cynicism.

 _I'm done making a fool of myself… I'm done waiting for people to decide I'm enough... I won't be blindsided again..._

He looked tired like a troubled mind had stopped him from sleeping well last night. It was enough to make her do a double-take and take a pause.

This was Angry Iceberg territory...

Parker questioned. "Is this some kind of denial thing?"

Dick glared at her, affronted, fury darkening his eyes to an inky blue. "Is that your idea of a joke?"

"No, because this isn't some twisted Mills and Boon storyline. You can't just bully your way into her uterus! I'm not expecting you offer to marriage but for the love of GOD Dick…." Parker exclaimed poking her finger into his chest matching his ire with her own. "Figure your shit out, and while you are at it, try working on being a little less cruel to the girl who loves you!"


	45. Chapter 45

Deceit lies and contract alibis. There was so much of it in Neptune it was enough to wrap a marshmallow heart in barbed wire. Yet for such an impressive resume, Veronica Mars looked as intimidating as a teddy bear in combat boots as she picked absently at the label on her soda bottle.

There was no mistaking that fierce intelligence in those cornflower blue eyes, or the sharp as a blade wit that kept most people on edge. It was part of what Logan loved about her, being with around her, challenging her and loving her felt like an adrenaline rush. She could be an acquired taste to some, but as cliché as it sounded, she was as essential to him as air, gravity and the Sun itself. Everything about her demanded authenticity and being present. Her unspoken rule was clear, show up as your full self, no faking it or it only proved to her that you couldn't be trusted.

"You two gotta stop looking at like you want to take a bite out of each other when I'm trying to eat my food," Wallace complained to Veronica as they watched her boyfriend walk through the cafeteria.

"I'm starting to feel like the Hearst location budget for this portion of my movie life is underfunded, feels like the only time I see you is when we are surrounded by plastic trays and plastic cheese" Logan commented partially listening to the snatches of conversations here and there and kissed his girlfriend on the cheek, slotting into the seat next to her. "No Mac?"

Veronica had accompanied the petite brunette to the Neptune Women's Health Centre earlier, his girlfriend had spent a good portion of the morning using the free slot in her schedule now that Professor Landry was still in custody to accompany Mac to the ultrasound appointment.

 _All these missed criminology classes and the guy was still killing it on Rate-My-Prof._

"She's meeting with her professor and the campus financial aid officer about her scholarship terms" Wallace said no disguising the criticism in his tone. He was still in favour of finding their own Hearst version of a CIA black site to encourage some better behavior from Dick Casablancas.

Mac was pregnant.

Pro-life Promotional Day had apparently given them a stuffed animal with a recording of the heartbeat in it to prove that very fact. Ultrasound pictures showing a small bean shaped shadow detonated that Hydrogen Truth Bomb into reality.

Logan nodded uncomfortably as Veronica shifted closer to him with cat-like elegance and he wrapped an arm over her shoulder. This girl had his heart doing double takes. It would be highly inappropriate to nuzzle his face to the curve of her neck but it felt good to finally be reconnected. Ever since she had agreed to marry him it was like the world was moving in currents he'd never noticed before.

"I'm tempted to put a tracker on her just in case she ends up tied up in the trunk of that Neanderthals car" Veronica quipped as students began multiplying like bacteria in the cafeteria.

Guiltily he winced at the memory of junior year when he'd scoffed at the idea of Dick Casablancas ever breeding. He just couldn't understand what the Hell Dick was thinking. The high powered lawyers and private security firm Dick had set loose on Mac today had crossed a line. A non-disclosure agreement sure, but sending a goon squad to camp outside her dorm less than 12 hours after their disagreement? The memory of how big a mistake it had been to have someone follow Veronica around set his teeth on edge.

 _What the hell had his morally misguided buddy been thinking?_ It wasn't like she'd take out a billboard.

"Piz announced the literary council started a Go-Fund-Me page in aid of Weevil's family. There was a little opposition from Lilith House about memorializing an ex-con but with any luck if we can keep the Lampoon from printing anything to antagonize them, we should be able to help out" Amira said thankfully changing the subject.

Logan understood Wallace's position on the matter and how everyone thought Dick should be handling things, but it wasn't so clean cut. The whole thing felt toxic. There was other stuff going on and a side other than hedonistic playboy this kangaroo court knew nothing about.

He regretted agreeing to keep Mac's secret from Dick. Veronica was right, secrets were poison, and they rarely ended well.

Richard Casablancas Snr was back which made the loose fragile threads of his f equilibrium even looser. He didn't have to worry about destructive spirals because Dick wasn't a neurotic drinker and a compulsive gambler or so he thought until Logan got back to the Penthouse and found his roommates stuff gone and revised costings from management informing him that his payments would no longer be shared.

"Can you reach him?" Veronica asked softly, shooting him an assessing glance as Logan tried to call his best man but got no answer. Silently he shook his head. Dick had moved out without saying a word.

 _Would the real Dick Casablancas please stand up?_

He'd rather take a double dose of trash talking that his best friend be giving him the silent treatment. There had been as much warmth in his roommates eyes as crushed ice this morning before he'd left.

 _Nothing was going to change the past but he should have been paying closer attention…_

It had been a turbulent past year, and he felt guilty for the first time realizing that for Dick, behind the sunny frat boy mask he wore so well that the blackest pit of the worst Hell was his living nightmare. Hell-bent on anonymous sex with a parade of girls that had been coming in and out of his hotel suite, running off to Vegas… disappearing for days like it was spring break at random house parties, anything to whelve the loss and the guilt.

He'd quickly updated Veronica in on the car ride back to his penthouse about the reappearance of Richard Snr and asked that she not be so quick to condemn this brooding, menacing version of his friend who seemed intent to only open his mouth the last few days to change his feet.

"Any idea where he could have gone?" she asked when he turned to absorb all the details of her symmetrical features, electric blue eyes pulling him out of his reverie. Veronica Mars could make the world go away with a look.

"A rustic resort out in the boonies?" he sighed curling his arm around her slim waist. "The hot blondes in my life do love to fill my world with drama."

"You think Dick is hot?" Veronica asked raising an eye-brow, the ghost of a smile tipped his mouth.

"Mac thinks Dick is hot," he amended giving her a kiss on the forehead.

"Yeah, they rocked that boat like the Titanic," Veronica quipped sardonically.

 _Heart breakers tend to be good in the sack._

"Usually you would be whipping out the crossbows in times like this," Logan observed quietly. In fact, Veronica had been rather reserved on the whole issue. Between Weevils murder and everything going on between Mac and Dick, they had barely discussed anything.

"Right now I'm just wishing I could channel the _Mentalist_ ," she confessed, scarcely hearing her own words. _Solve everything by breakfast…_ "Sometimes I wish the drama would just stick to Netflix."

Those sky-blue eyes seemed ready for a storm and he reached out cupping her face, his amber eyes pleading with her for patience. Dick was going to be part of her life now, as much as she had issues with the lecherous playboy in the past, she'd seen his loyalty to the people she cared about, and Logan seemed convinced that there was more to this than it seemed.

"I need you to let me handle Dick," he breathed. "Can you trust me?"

"I trust you," Veronica said arching into his touch, her limbs felt like they had the strength of melted butter. "Always."


	46. Chapter 46

(Adele - Someone Like You)

"He cannot remove your scholarship and any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation, however, should you feel unable to fully commit to the duration of your studies in light of your.. recent development Ms. MacKenzie, it may be prudent of you to withdraw at this time and allow allocation of that funding to benefit another student who isn't in such a medically _compromised_ position," Professor Stevens had advised her.

Pregnancy could take its toll on even the most promising students, he'd apparently seen it all before, and he advised that she should start contacting women's aid charities and looking into her long term housing situation in case her parents didn't take it well. The whole thing made her feel belittled.

They couldn't have been more apologetic or reassuring but the gesture made her feel like they were already writing her off and getting ready to clear out her things for the next student.

 _So much for pastoral care._

Mac had been informed by the resident R.A. Courtney that due to the recent incident at Hearst involving a student slipping an abortion drug into her roommates tea, until she had made her choice over what to do next, that she was being removed from the dormitory for her 'safety' and put up in a hotel for the next few nights. They had been very implicit in making sure this had nothing to do with the campus assaults by student radio DJ Mercer and his accomplice. Parker had text to tell her she'd been informed to attend a _mandatory_ counseling session and sign a waiver with them promising not to turn into a baby killer.

Hearst Administration was also pretty adamant that they should contact her parents, which because she was over 18, they could not do without her consent. She had refused.

"Labor should be painless because Jesus died and erased the 'pain during childbirth' penalty women got from Eve, so if you feel pain, it's because you don't believe in Jesus." Lola the Hearst counseling volunteer told Mac enthusiastically while they sat at dinner discussing her options.

Mac cursed her luck at being trapped here with no exit strategy. Seems Lola took her counselling duties to the extreme and was insistent on not leaving her side until she was settled in at the Sea Sprite Motel.

Veronica had offered to ask her father's friend Cliff McCormack to do some pro bono work reviewing the NDA and legal documents that the courier had given her that morning. She'd also offered to have Sheriff Keith Mars raid the nearest fraternity party where no doubt her newly single ex was probably having a tinder party swiping right on everything willing with boobs, and haul her baby daddy off to the drunk tank to cool off for a few days. It was tempting, but she wasn't the vindictive type.

"I also heard eating tomatoes will give the baby heartburn," Lola whispered loudly, looking down at Mac's salad.

Outrage flashed in Mac's eyes but she didn't voice it.

 _Food shaming already?_

If it had been Dick showed up in that office, the girl probably would have offered him a cigar and baked him a pie. Double standards or what! It was emblematic in a system of flippant men drunk on the approval of telling women to take a seat, to go home, stay silent and stop stirring up trouble.

"I'll bear that in mind" Mac retorted with sarcastic sweetness. _Would everyone be keeping tabs on her meals now, or had Dick hired Lola the Moron here as his replacement spy?_

Between the don't-sue-us measures being taken by the administration and the alpha male chest thumping from her just plain-beautiful to look at ex-boyfriend motherhood was beginning to feel like jail sentence.

 _Who'd have thought under all that carefree blonde sexiness that Dick was just a macho thug?_

Calm down reality, you are being ridiculous.

No, ridiculous was the stuffed dinosaur in her rucksack that thrummed like the ticking of a metronome counting down the days to impending diapers and breaking her parents hearts. Pushing her college plans aside to embrace single motherhood made her sound like a sympathetic hero, but right now it felt like the narrowing of a cage. Unplanned motherhood alone would have been enough to deal with, but unplanned motherhood under these circumstances was pretty terrifying.

 _Was Dick going to use the surveillance tapes of them in the elevator to accuse her of drugging him and that this pregnancy was premeditated? Was he out there with other girls right now as a self-proclaimed bachelor?_

Everything about them had been wrong, the kind of wrong that felt so right. But none of that mattered now. No computer algorithm could have predicted the way he was going to react.

 _Maybe she should try and convince him the kid wasn't his? Or take off to Europe someplace and live in a Yurt?_

They only had 6 to 7 short months to figure things out.

Mac was glad she was sitting down, another spell of being light-headed made the room spin. The rush of emotions made her queasy. Most of that first night was still a little blurry. The denial and hope she'd been operating on over the last few weeks that the lab results had been wrong, and praying for minus signs on little plastic sticks had been obliterated with the ultrasound images bombshell.

She wasn't one to really think too hard about Roe v. Wade but as her companion rattled on about the _miracle_ of Jesus welcoming an outcast pregnant woman, Mac knew what side of the debate Lola came down on.

"I'm going to Bible study group in an hour, you should join us" Lola smiled, her silence seemed to rile the strawberry blonde even more. "It's over at the Evangelical Pregnancy Center!"

"I'll think about it," Mac replied dismissively that any fool could have interpreted as a resounding, no thanks. The first hint of anger she had shown towards anyone in a horrendously long day. Lola gave her a suit-yourself shrug and a you'll-regret-it-later-if-you-don't quirk of her brow as the prim, buttoned up strawberry blonde stood with her tray and walked to the ice-cream station. Even if she felt lost and alone, she knew she could always call her parents and avoid the cult brainwashing.

 _God, what is wrong with me? This immaturity isn't me… I should be calling Dick to sort this out._

"Hello, paging Ms Distracted, I told you I have to go now. This is Tim, Tim Foyle. He is here to take over your situation," Lola smiled making an annoying waving gesture. "Best of luck." Mac looked up a strawberry-tint staining her face in embarrassment as she looked up at the short brown haired man, feeling like an idiot. Rolling her eyes Lola took off with her tub of ice-cream.

'Tim' was dressed oddly, like a dollar store Cosplay of Rupert Giles, as if a kid had tried to put on a tweed costume of what a professor should look like from only watching reruns of Saved by the Bell.

"You're Mac?" he offered sliding into the seat opposite her. His silver framed glasses assessed her in an awkward friendly manner. Nodding she brushed tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear and slumped back into her seat. "Uh-Ms Farmer.. umm Lola, had to go take care of something" Tim smiled shyly.

"Sure," Mac shrugged quietly in response, forcing a smile then scooting her plate away. In truth, she'd barely eaten anything today.

 _Being at college really made her miss family dinners._

Would her parents even accept her after this? She could barely afford her life, let alone give them another mouth to feed.

"I uh-I have to stay around for a little while, around 45 minutes or so until the night staff come on duty, do some last minute lock up because I'm fire warden for this building in light of recent events, then I can escort you to the motel, get you checked in if that's okay?" Tim smiled reassuringly. She could tell he was trying awkwardly to be non-threatening in a dorky charming sort of way.

"That's fine, I have to collect my class project from the computer lab, I could meet you in about an hour?" Mac shrugged. Anything was better than staying here listening to Piz churn out another ballad like Sinead O'Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U.

"Sounds perfect" he nodded.


	47. Chapter 47

(Needtobreathe ft Gavin DeGraw – Brother)

Often, no one noticed your tears, they rarely acknowledged your sadness or your pain but they always noticed your mistakes. She just hoped no one in Neptune's Sheriff Department noticed that the evidence box from Steve Botando's case file had been 'misplaced' under the vacant desk of a Deputy Jones recently let go by her father.

"I've told you before, I am not the right demographic to be bringing to a breaking and entering situation!" Wallace complained in a hushed tone as Veronica pocketed the keys that she had 'borrowed' from her dads office.

 _Poor Sacks… he really was a sucker for those pastries, the guy was going to end up donut belly cliché at this rate._

"You aren't going to be anywhere near the house," Veronica assured him with a shrug, tucking the keys into her black leather bag.

"No… it's called being the lookout… and according to Cliff in legal terms, that makes me an accomplice" Wallace said shaking his head.

"You trying to bail on me before we need _bail_?" Veronica gasped in mock betrayal.

"No, I'm just trying to remind you that Wallace Lives Matter, especially now he got a very hot girlfriend waiting for him in an hour," Wallace retorted crossing his arms over his chest.

"Wallace speaks about himself in third person now?" Veronica asked raising an eyebrow.

"Wallace- I-I think its maybe about time that Veronica took a little step back and spoke to her _best friend_ about all the shit that's gone down in the last few days we haven't had a chance to talk about lately," Wallace corrected giving her a stern expression. The kind he gave her when she'd been living in her own head for too long. He always warned her that the conspiracy theories and threads she tugged on would knot up too tightly if she didn't unpack them often enough. _Perceptive as always, Dear Wallace._

 _Just because I carry it well… doesn't mean it's not heavy._ But where to start?

The huge life-altering news unfolding for her friend Mac, the ultrasound earlier this afternoon was the first concrete proof that they really truly had left high school far behind.

 _Especially as it hadn't resulted in someone calling their parents. From Mac's reaction, she'd barely even told herself. It was important that even if they were on their own now that her Cindy Mackenzie knew she wouldn't be alone in this. Veronica just hoped Logan knew what he was doing._

They didn't have the luxury of juvenile mistakes anymore, Hells, if she was caught her going to Botando's house tonight, she'd no longer be tried as a minor. Even though she knew her father would always be there, and that Mac's parents were supportive and loved their daughter, childhood was over. It was time to look towards their future because the chances they might not be around to fully enjoy them rang true in a way she hadn't appreciated before. Nothing was certain, and life was unpredictable.

 _Weevil's funeral was in two days._

Mindy Odell was still out roaming free and so far her father's deputies hadn't uncovered anything incriminating. There was still no direct evidence linking the Dean's wife directly to his murder, and the blood on Professor Landry's clothing found with Weevil's body, proved a positive match for Cyrus Odell. Hank Landry was still in custody but he would have to be released once the 96 hour holding period was up.

Red tape was holding up the interviews with the bistro CCTV for his alibi during the time that Weevil was killed, her dad was sure that there would be progress soon and once again Veronica found herself frustrated with how slowly the wheels of justice turned without a nudge in the right direction.

"You're doing it again, I can still see those cogs turning," Wallace huffed at her. He'd long since given her the this isn't _Kickass_ lecture after she'd almost gotten her head shaved.

"I promised Mac we would call by her Motel room with _Hackers_ and _Revenge of the Nerds,_ " Veronica answered leading the way out of the Sheriff's department towards her car.

"Anything but _Ghost's in the Shell_ … between her and Piz I've seen that cartoon like a hundred times," Wallace shuddered.

"Wanna drive?" she smirked tossing him the keys. Wallace had a slight love affair with her new car, the Saturn her father had bought her for an apology for ditching their father/daughter trip to New York and almost getting himself killed in Mexico.

"If this is some cunning way to make me the getaway driver…" he said narrowing his brown eyes but she just gave him that wide blue-eyed 'who me?' innocent look before breaking into an impish grin as he opened the driver's side door.

Veronica climbed in and hit the radio Don't Give Up On Me, Andy Grammer filling the silence between them as they drove through the streets of Neptune, the night lights reflected off wet black shining pavements. Inhaling deeply she soaked in the quiet night air, glad to be still for a moment. Driving in a nightmare she felt like she couldn't escape from, and no amount of sleuthing was ever going to make it right.

 _Skin and bones, she was only human but somewhere along the way, V for Vendetta became synonymous with Veronica. She still couldn't imagine a world with Weevil gone. This wasn't about her saving the world, this was about rectifying it and not letting people like her friend go unnoticed._

Part of the reason she didn't ever let go, was she didn't feel that strong but she couldn't keep running her heart in circles. She wouldn't keep repeating the same old problems. Whatever the path ahead of her, Logan would be in all every future she'd choose. She wouldn't fall into the trap of thinking too much and feeling too little. She wanted to truly live. No machine mind, or machine heart.

 _No more hiding._

"It's not your fault," Wallace said quietly.

"Maybe it's best we just skip the cryfest until after I've raided Botandos underwear draw for murderous secrets?" Veronica answered with a lump in her throat.

"Do you think Logan will have much luck finding Dick?" Wallace asked changing the topic.

"I have faith in the bromance," Veronica sighed. No matter what insanity spiral Dick Casablancas was whirling down, Logan was determined to defend him, whether she liked it or not. They were like brothers. No matter how poorly Dick had reacted to Mac and the baby, Veronica had never lost a sibling, though for a brief while there had been the suspicion that she had with the death of Lily Kane.

That kind of grief was cruel mistress, it twisted a person out of who they were before, sometimes we were stronger, sometimes it broke us completely but no one got to stay the same. As much as Veronica hated Cassidy Casablancas- Dick was still mourning his little brother. His father was back in play, and for a professional snoop, she was ashamed to say that she didn't actually know that much about Dick's current relationship with his father, and no matter how absent he had been. _Blood calls to Blood._

Casablancas men were in the No Go Zone in her memories for an obvious reason. Unpacking that Pandora's box could take a lifetime, and she just wasn't there yet.

 _I won't make him choose between us. If that's my small part in making **us** happy, then I'm going to trust him and that's a really big step for me. I won't spend the rest of my days regretting letting the love of my life slip away. I'm ready to fight for this. _

_We're meant to be. We should be too young to know about forever._

"We think that they're ugly but they know that they're beautiful," Wallace quoted with a sly grin pulling into the Botando driveway.

"You have got to stop watching Grey's Anatomy with my dad…" Veronica groaned.

"Why not? It's got great advice! 'Find a grown-up who want's what you want… and date.' It's better than relying on a fortune cookie," he said turning off the engine.

"Find what you were looking for?" a familiar voice asked and Veronica turned to see Vinnie Van Lowe standing beside her car window.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Well I tried calling…" he smirked.


	48. Chapter 48

(Grace Carter - Silence)

"Stress is definitely not your vibe," Parker commented absently as Logan looked around the Beta Kappa Delta sorority house in full party mode. Since the administration had effectively banned her from sharing space with Mac until that mandatory counselling session or whatever, she was playing the Batman to Logan's Tony Stark. Jack Back – Sometimes reverberating over the din of conversation. Checking out a college campus scene while sober was an eye-opening experience. Especially on this hunting trip because the Dick Casablancas-formerly known as Roommate no longer shared their off-campus housing, and the Neptune Grand wasn't obliged to keep a forwarding address of its clientele, now Logan had no idea where his best friend had gone.

Parker had mentioned confronting Dick hours earlier, but she since changed her stance on digging a shallow grave for his friend, and was more amenable to the idea of helping him with an intervention. If they could find him. She had volunteered to help Logan 'canvas' his friends known haunts while Veronica went to check out a lead on the Odell case, and _not get Wallace a criminal record_.

Veronica had tried tracking down a forwarding address while they ate dinner together at his penthouse before she left to meet Wallace but she'd had no luck. She had said usually she'd have turned to Mac to do some cyber sleuthing if a trail got this cold since most of the world was paperless, but certain bills like car-insurance tended to be updated and were easy to check if you knew how to hack the right system. Which given their relationship went nuclear yesterday, wasn't currently an option.

"This is getting us nowhere," Logan sighed. If Dick had been here or at one of the other fifteen parties just like it on Greek Row, then he'd be found at the heart of the party declaring its varying degrees of Lit. Sometimes the only thing Dick didn't drink, was the water in the pool.

How the fuck hadn't he seen the signs sooner? Bone tired didn't even come close to how Logan was feeling right now. This was all because of a detail he'd missed. Life was a sick game of appreciation played in reverse.

Dick was often the only thing that had made his life tolerable, and yet he'd gotten a healthy dose of reality this afternoon that there were things about his friend he barely knew. Their friendship might have seemed superficial and surface, but nothing about the trials it had weathered had been artificial or light. Checking his phone, Logan shook his head when the text from Chip Miller confirmed that none of Dick's usual fraternity drinking buddies had seen him.

"Well we haven't been able to find him the regular way, so just you point this Maddie chick out and leave the rest to me," Parker told him. "I'm going to be all over that girl…"

"Alright! Now it's a party," smiled a random drunken frat boy leaning on the beer pong table as Parker walked by. His pistachio-colored gaze leering in the statuesque blonde's direction as the asshole surveyed the 'fresh meat' he'd assumed was on offer by virtue of Parker merely existing..

 _Sometimes his own gender turned his guts._ Logan thought. He didn't seem like any of Wallace's teammates crowd and given that the entire reason Madison Sinclair was even at a house party held by Hearst Greek Sisters showing their hospitality by hosting the rival football team and the locals and visitors didn't party together before a game, these guys were probably from the wrestling or baseball teams.

She might look like a doe-eyed dreamy American girl, but Parker's recent experiences made Logan feel protective when she bristled slightly at the unwelcome gleam in fratboys eyes, so consciously Logan stepped closer, giving the impression that they'd come together.

Did men even see the _girls_ under the delicate curves they coveted so much?

 _Had his father ever truly seen Lily?_

"No man, the real party is in here," a taller frat boy corrected, grabbing his crotch. Logan was tempted to quip some smartass retort about what kind of self-respecting girl would share a bed with a Neanderthal like that, but then he reminded himself of their intended target. Ball Bunnies were a breed unto themselves, and more than a few of these girls probably shared Madison's more mercenary tendencies. Sickening to realise how transaction so many relationships in his world really were.

It was hard not to get distracted by all the activity at the party, he envied Veronica's ability to stay focus on her target, he couldn't keep himself from worrying and wishing he was with her and Wallace, but he had to find Dick before the baby and Mac drama escalated too far and their argument went beyond the point of no return.

"Really Ander? Next you'll be asking if she's interested in joining the Annual Adopt-the-Beach Kissing Auction and inviting her to give you an audition" a willowy redhead scolded replacing his bottled beer with a glass of water and standing with a hand on one hip.

"You look mean," the original frat boy slurred reaching for his beer pong cup.

"I am, move," she frowned then her expression transformed as she turned a thousand-watt smile in Parker's direction holding out an expensive manicure. "Hi! Sorry for the knuckledraggers here, what can I say? Told from birth they are raised to rule, bred to lead and weaned on a diet of entitlement and never expected to have more than balls for brains. Is it any wonder Greek life has such an image problem around here?"

Logan studied her painted face and how the red hair curled around her shoulders, noting the socialite armor and feeling grateful that even though his girlfriend Veronica was devastating beauty, she was more at home climbing through garbage and some breaking and entering than devoting her life to being an ornamental trophy wife.

"Tiffany, you ever get tired of being such a balls to the wall bitch?" the taller one Logan assumed was Ander growled as she tossed the beer into the trash can beside them.

"Not since you two had your battle at the pink fortress," the shorter frat commented.

"Ever think of upgrading that tic tac dick?" Tiffany retorted rolling her eyes haughtily.

"Still bitter you were never more than a tinder hook up?" Ander deadpanned, sliding the water away from him and lifting two of the beer pong cups and striding off, much to the protests of some players.

"If you want someone to climb you like a mountain then buy a goat," Tiffany retorted before he stormed off muttering something that sounded like cockwallet under his breath.

This felt more like walking onto the set of Gossip Girl than the clandestine military op, Logan had pictured when they'd heard rumors of Madison's cheer-squad partying at the sorority house.

 _At least there'd be a pillow fight scene for zero reasons, life really was sexier in the movies. Instead, I'm following the beer trail across campus like a lost puppy looking for Dick._

Veronica always made this stuff look so easy, his lips lifted in a slight smile at the memory of finding several numbers from old cases scribbled on the inside of t-shirts he'd noticed during their summer he'd spent undressing her.

 _Foreplay with Veronica was best when you gave her a puzzle…_

Tiffany raked her green eyes over Logan appreciatively, then turned her attention back to Parker before wincing when two drunk football players cheered loudly as they won their beer pong game and chest bumped shirtless.

"There's never a sorority house massacre when you need one," Tiffany smiled crossing her arms. "Are you with Pi Lambda Pi?"

"Ummm no.. but we are looking for one of their sisters," Parker said returning her smile.

"But not for a killer sleepover," Logan assured her feeling awkward with his hands shoved in his pockets, with Veronica, he only usually had to stand there and look intimidating.

"You should just brand that and put it on a t-shirt, with the Echolls name sales would be a slaughter," Madison said with a cool laughing tone in her voice. Logan didn't need to turn to know she was behind him, he could tell from the hands currently snaking around his waist. "Hello lover, what brings you here?" she grinned brazenly as he and Parker turned to look over their shoulder.

 _Lucifer herself._

Logan tried visibly not to grit his teeth, memories of that drunken night in Aspen at the New Year's Eve party during winter break moved unwelcomingly to the surface, and instantly he wanted to go run himself a hot shower to scald the feel of her hands from his skin.

He'd not been with Veronica when they'd slept together, but you knew the truth by how it felt… and he knew sleeping with this viper would always be his biggest sin.

 _And they say the rich don't suffer…_ _the only reason she had ever given Dick the time of day had been his exalted status as an 09er and hers as an aspiring soulless socialite. The girl might look like a sculpted work of art, but she was not to be trusted._

"Just looking for a pink plastic trinket," Logan quipped, hoping the contempt wasn't clear on his face. Years of living with an abusive murderous parent had gifted him with a Chandler Bing level humor to deflect from unease and the ability to compartmentalize. If they were lucky she wouldn't behave like a petulant toddler and just give them the information that he'd been texting her for most of tonight.

He needed her to hand over that code for the app, even if he had to pry it from her hands.

Parker was giving Madison a thousand-yard stare and standing closer to him, much the way that he'd done for her earlier. This was not going to end with a hot sex session in a bathroom in a crowded house party but now he was glad that Veronica had suggested Parker tag along. Madison's eyes shot straight to her hairline, finally shifting her gaze to the taller blonde before blue eyes narrowed in a look that was 100% predator.

"Right, I'll leave you to it" Tiffany said politely, reading the tension between them.

"She smiled at me," a drunk jock boasted.

"Yeah, like she wanted to set you on fire," his friend said punching him on the arm but spilled the other man's drink. A fight erupted after much expletive-ridden dialogue and Tiffany sighed before shouting out to the two frat guys who had been handing out beer coasters at the door.

"I see you finally decided to ditch the skanky trailer trash with the not-so-sparkling personality," Madison grinned offering a talon adorned hand to Parker. From her expression, he could tell his companion was mentally giving her the finger.

 _Go Team Larker._

"I see you are finally out letting your hair down and not your pants," Logan retorted with a smile but he knew it was useless, the girl had an ego like Teflon, where there should have been a heart, was a vat of prescribed pharmaceuticals and fashion price lists. Glassy ice-blue eyes raked over Parker and he knew she was doing what she'd made habit of in high school. Mentally costing up someone's appearance to see how much effort she had to make in keeping a civil conversation, her acting like a monstrous bitch was something she'd declared a poor people problem.

Madison was the typical wealthy vapid cheerleader sob story right down to the binge/purge eating disorder, angry weaponized sex, and high drama. She only ever showed his former roommate affection to keep him on a leash or manipulate him, Dick had only ever been her Black Amex to fund her social life between the next parental shopping spree and her allowance.

She really was horrid, her only morals were that vanity should be considered a virtue and Logan could see now how poisonous being around her had been. How poisonous it had always been during the times he'd drink or smoke himself into oblivion.

 _But sometimes a person had to hit the bottom to see they had a problem, and Madison Sinclair was the human embodiment of every blackest pit of hell he'd ever imagined awaited him._

Subconsciously he knew on some level he'd ignored all the red flags of his former clique and the early signs of her drug addictions, possessive streak and overall malice she'd cultivated instead of a personality that had eventually ended her relationship with Dick. He hadn't noticed because around that time, he'd been taking every chemical going to try and fill the hole that Lily had left. He hated having to be here, but he owed it to Dick to be there for him and show up as his friend. Even if that meant dealing with a putrid harpy like Madison.

When Logan had finally got back together with Veronica, he was forced to really look at his life and the choices he was making, the realization that staying on that path without her would probably have killed him eventually was a sobering thought. He'd finally started cleaning up his life, she was his future, whenever he thought about a family… his kids all looked like her. Blonde, sassy, petite.

 _He wanted to be with her now and always._

"Logan, I'm just here to have fun… we used to have a lot of fun…" Madison tutted with mocking cool. "Or did you forget?"


	49. Chapter 49

(Bishop Briggs - Jekyll and Hyde)

Mac looked longingly at the filtered coffee pot to her left as she shifted in her seat and opened up a tab on her computer to see if decaff filter coffee was an actual thing, or if she would have to remember to pick up some instant stuff tomorrow now that her list of do's and don'ts included several items that were considered off-menu for pregnant women.

She was so tired, which the medical liaison giving her the ultrasound this afternoon had assured her was completely normal for the first trimester, as was constant nausea and sensitive nipples.

Mac had mulled over an Amazon purchase of What to Expect When You're Expecting before Loony Lola from Hearst student counseling services gave her several copies of books donated by former mothers who were either teaching staff or re-gifted from students after their use was no longer needed. and a list of local 'troubled teens' assistance businesses The textbook was so thick it was intimidating, but the immediate 'cheat sheet' of helpful advice other than a list of recommended vitamins had included information like avoiding uncooked eggs, no using hot tubs and no caffeine or alcohol.

Which sucked because a glass of Ricki Martini and curling up with her friends putting the world to rights sounded exactly like what she needed right now.

"You're just a babe to the wolves" Mac muttered to herself. Cliff McCormack was reviewing the documents sent to her from the Casablancas family lawyer today.

She finger-combed her long brown hair and pulled some of it into a neat braid, going over a mental checklist of everything she had packed, and making note of any small items which she may have to pick up on the way to the Sea Sprite Motel.

Piz had been beyond sweet this afternoon and his thorough packing skills were definitely boy scout material. There was barely anything that he hadn't collected from Parker when he'd arranged to drop off her overnight bag before starting his DJ session.

His current segment of Who's Crashing On Your Couch? Was discussing the various viewpoints from several camps about antisocial problems caused by Jock Row and the College Sports scene during Game season. The drama department had declared the extra security a waste of resources, hinting at the vandalism of their props during Hazing by the rival teams during their visits. Should Hearst be hosting these rival teams when they cannot behave? It was certainly a better show than their most recent 'Theatre of the Mind' Radio Drama Mac usually avoided until the podcast.

 **V: Let me when you get settled, Wallace wants to know if Nachos are on your bad list?**

Smiling Mac fired back a quick text. She had seen Wallace's ideas of Nacho toppings.

 **Mac: that amount of melted cheese and unholy guacamole should be on everyone's forbidden list.**

The Lilith House and Lampoon Spokespersons did nothing but bicker back and forth about unequal non-pay between women and men's competition on campus which opened the floor to talent exploitation most notably the lack of diversity of the Hearst basketball team, and racist chants during some of the supporters stand when several players had kneeled during the national anthem.

Everyone wanted something, but all Mac wanted was to finish college and obtain her degree.

Listening to the arguments skilfully navigated by Piz had been a welcome distraction from the urge to constantly check her messages for any contact from Dick. Opening up her snapchat she checked for anything new, but his social media had been radio silent all day. Broken out of her reverie by a knock at the computer lab door Mac looked up to see a shy smile from Tim, glancing at the time in the corner of her laptop she returned his greeting.

 _Had it been 45 minutes already?_

"Hey-" she said sliding her chair a little back from the desk.

"Ah no, please… don't get up. I owe you an apology, I've uh.. there are some items I've been asked to take care of by Professor Sedgewick. Sometimes I'm a little slow. I was just wondering if you would be alright erm maybe delaying our departure for a little bit?" he asked. He looked frazzled, reminding Mac of the old school Neptune High staff administrator Ms. Rowlands schlepping between tasks when Mr. Clemmons took off for Golf week. There was something submissive about Tim, and she knew from past experience with Veronica that her little Mission Impossible for tonight might take up some time, at least here she could use the Hearst intranet to look up her assignment schedule and send some emails to the student resource center.

She also had access to the security server here to check access cards to the building the night Weevil had been murdered.

Mac sat halted her movements and sat back down, nodding. "Sure."

Tim smiled, visibly relieved. "Great, thank you. Just ever since Professor Landry's arrest and the rest of the chaos several of the faculty seem to have forgotten that I still maintained most of his daily class schedule, even if there were no active lectures," he explained resting against the door frame.

 _That's why he seemed familiar…_ Veronica had mentioned Professor Landry's Teaching Assistant a few times. She'd mentioned that he seemed to dislike her from the moment they met but she'd also mentioned that Dick was caught fooling around with Bonnie, Tim's girlfriend who happened to be the poor girl dosed with an abortion drug by her roommate. That explained the aura around him that just screamed meek and pitiful. No wonder he seemed so preoccupied and stressed out, this was probably an awkward situation for him too.

 _You are pregnant._

Mac hadn't been prepared for when those words had changed everything but despite the overwhelming chaos, it was a hard lesson for her to swallow. Insecurity was new for Mac, and she felt tears in her eyes. The lump in her throat prevented speech.

 _Stupid baby hormones…_

Tim Foyle might have been unimpressive in the classroom, and his wardrobe looked like a coughed up beige furball, he didn't look like one of those handsome knights who rode in saving damsels in distress but he wasn't some jerky guy who bolted as soon as he could but not before accusing his pregnant girlfriend of manipulating him and asked to see the price tag.

He was mature and had a good head on his shoulders, he'd bought Bonnie a ring and wanted to stand by her even after she'd cheated on him.

 _He hadn't accused Bonnie of trying to trap him…._

"Professor Sedgewick seems to think that it means I have some spare time to assist him with grading his distance learning online classes, and using copy-catch so that we don't have as many problems with that pirate test site." Tim continued and stuck his hands in his pockets.

"I'll be fine here, I've got lots to keep me occupied," Mac assured him, hinting at the pile of books.


	50. Chapter 50

"This is beginning to feel a little like stalking" Wallace murmured.

 _Bringing her best friend so far into her world was not part of the plan, now here she was on a dead suspects door step with stolen keys and face to face with Vinnie Van Lowe the Neon Sign of Bad Decisions while my fiancé is trying to find Dick by facing off with Satan._

"You realise there is no reward for information about this case… more like potential felony charges and a year inside," Veronica told Vinnie crossing her arms over her chest. She was here for business, why was her father's rival crashing in her investigation. Whatever it was, she was sure it would come back to bite her. "What do you think you are doing?" she asked levelling him a glare as he began rummaging through a duffle bag he placed on the hood of her car.

"Oh come on, I had a vision, if there is a lock… then Lamb Chop here must have the key… Let's crack this piñata and have us some fun…" Vinnie shrugged handing her a small electronic device. "No strings attached fun."

"Like a ménage tois?" Wallace asked in alarm. "I think we need to set some more ground rules for stake-outs."

"Nope and no strings? With you it's always more like a bungee cord," Veronica quipped, mentally kicking herself for going to see Vinnie about possible connections to Steve Botando and that bug in Landry's phone. Turning the small black instrument over in her hands she gave it a quick once over, it was an EMF reader of some kind.

 _Was he expecting to hold a séance to reach Steve Botando?_

"CIA prototypes. Nah, I'm just kidding… I acquired them when I busted a rigged beauty pageant contest a few months back, some of those girls will do anything to win… Paranoia and diet pills… including using hi-tech toys to prove their competition is seducing the judges," he explained.

"Veronica, can we make like a tree and leaf before the neighbours decide to get so captivated by that Hawiian shirt they use it to pick us out of a line up? No offense." Wallace said casting a quick look at the older man. It was blue with martini glasses on it, and stuck out like a nail jutting out of a board.

 _Life was just a game to guys like Vinnie._

"None taken, I know This shirt, is an asset… without it, I'd be walking around naked" Vinnie said pinching the fabric under his leather jacket.

W _ho the hell wore a leather jacket during a heat wave in the Sunshine state?_ Wallace thought grumpily.

"Come on Baby Mars, what happened to 'it takes a village'?" Vinnie grinned.

"I'm pretty sure The Idiot isn't on that list," Wallace retorted under his breath.

"Shouldn't talk so negatively about yourself kid, you seem smart, any good with a basketball?" Vinnie winked.

"You promised me no part of tonight's plan involved torture," Wallace deadpanned fixing Veronica with a look that screamed you-are-killing-me-here.

"I'd kind of like to know what the plan is?" Vinnie shrugged. "This is our first mission together!"

"And this is the only time this week you will hear me use the word, abort! No, uh-uh, you wanna hear it in Spanish?" Wallace said shaking his head at Veronica and turning back to the car. "Can we go get Mac before he comes up with a secret handshake?"

"Or a theme song!" Vinnie grinned as he plucked another device out of his bag. "You're boyfriend always this uptight?"

"Veronica…" Wallace implored.

"How did you know we would be here?" she asked finally as his amusement faded.

"Eli Navarro" he said simply, any trace of the jovial teasing persona disappeared. "He fixed my car a few months back when a client got me looking too close at the Fitzpatricks. He was a good kid and violence begets violence…. It's easy to forget sometimes that _you're_ just a kid… Everyone has their secrets, everyone tells their lies… and then there's you Baby Mars. I don't often go pro-bono… but this time, I'm gonna make an exception."

Veronica swallowed hard and blinked away the glistening sting in her eyes.

"You're mission should you choose to accept it…" he offered with a humourless lopsided grin.

"OK" she nodded clutching the device in her hand.

"There are snacks in the bag kid," Vinnie winked at Wallace as he started up the drive.

"What? Ugh then why the hell bother? Sounds like we'd have more fun WITHOUT Dick," Madison sighed rolling her eyes when Logan explained to her that Dick's dad was back in town and that he was missing.

This kind of shit was why she'd opted to go to college out of state… between Lily and that bus crash and all the scandal with Cassidy and Gina Goodman's dad, was it any wonder she spent so much knocking on heaven's door with little white lines?

 _Better everyone see her the way she chose, than the way she saw herself._ If there was a God somewhere, she wouldn't be stranded here in all this misery.

"His stupid family drama almost ruined my summer trip to Italy. Did you two finally break up? Best just to leave him to sulk, he'll come back in a few days. He always does. He's irritating that way." Madison said.

"Wow she really IS a bitch" Parker whispered quietly after

"And yet the people who matter love that about me," Madison snarled turning with the pink iphone X. "What I don't get is why they like _you_." she glared at Parker.

"Probably because she doesn't dress like a prostitute," Logan sighed holding out his hand. "Phone?"

"Right, whatever" she said rolling her eyes.

Glaring at him she slinked her way through the crowd with a feline grace before turning to look through the contents of her bag to locate her phone.

"Please take all the time you need," Logan quipped. That bitter cruelty was all Madison, not nature, not nurture, it was just the core of who she was, a darkness so entrenched even his best friends sunny disposition and loyal streak hadn't been able to weather it.

 _What did it say about him that Dick had left him too?_

"Well?" Parker asked a few minutes after Madison unlocked her phone and scrolled through her apps.

"Oh I know exactly where he is," she nodded.

"And?" Parker demanded expectantly.

"And I know where and the rest of you can suck it," she gloated.

"Madison…" Logan warned.

"It looks like he's heading towards Amity Hall just off campus," she said rolling her eyes.

Scrubbing a hand down his face Logan tried to think where exactly that was silently cursing himself for the academic disregard that he couldn't even recall the location.

 _What the Hell would Dick want in Amity Hall?_


	51. Chapter 51

(Sam Tinnesz ft. Zayde Wolf - Man or a Monster)

Less than five days ago his biggest concern had been where to plan the bachelor party when Logan finally popped the question to Veronica but the more Dick thought about it, the more he turned everything Parker had yelled at him, and how Mac had run from him after discovering that engagement ring.

 _"Richard please… I love you."_

 _"Try being a little less hateful to the girl who loves you."_

 _"I am on your side, but sometimes you have to get out of your own way."_

The more his suspicions about her motives and the baby seemed… wrong. Something had gone dim inside of him at the thought of her betrayal, so he'd done the only plausible thing he could do; he pushed her away.. at least until he unwrapped some of the screwed up wiring in his head. Logan might have been able to carry on life as a beautifully tortured soul, but Dick couldn't lose himself to the pain, anger and bitterness following the recent tragedies.

Life was rough and you had to choose a path because no one could show you the way. He knew pain in tenfold so he shut that emotion down.

 _Joy was a choice._

Caught in a town the size of Neptune, pasts were bound to collide. We just rarely knew how important a moment was until the chance to act on them had already passed. His dead brothers sweet, but gutsy ex-girlfriend should have been the last girl he ever considered, not when she constantly scowled at him with sheer anger in his eyes, slammed a door in his face, but she had quickly become the one thing he couldn't resist, that and some seriously hot and steamy sexy times. Dick admired her strength and resilience in surviving an awful experience.

He'd hoped they would be an anchor of hope and new beginnings for each other, then the universe had thrown him a curveball.

 _"Then let me take the bad away. Let me take care of you. Please, Richard, let me take care of you."_ She'd whispered to him that first night.

Dick ran his hand through his longer than usual blonde hair, the bitter truth finally sinking in. He'd fucked up.

He'd taken a wrong step when he'd acted like a monster, like someone his father would have been proud of. He knew he was a bit of an ass most of the time. He sarcastic, with the temper of a Tasmanian Devil if someone pushed him too far. He'd been righteously furious after finding out about the pregnancy determined to preserve his rights with regard to the baby and bent on revenge, so he'd thrown his weight around.

 _He'd accused her like he was about to be used and abandoned by a brainy, baby-mad schemer._

It wasn't often he admitted he was on the wrong side of the fence with his "Nobody's baby but mine" plan of attack.

 _Parker had looked like she wanted to slap some sense into him._

He should have taken care of her not listening dad's influence whispering in his ear, like the devil on his left shoulder. Cindy Mackenzie and their baby were the most important things in the world to him.

Fuck... he'd unleashed the family lawyers on her and threatened her entire future...

 _Joy is a choice._ _I'm not afraid to admit how much I need you. I was afraid before, but I'm not now. I won't hurt you again. Ever._

"You're mine, Cindy. No matter what happens, you're mine," he promised quietly to nothing but the night air.


	52. Chapter 52

,(Keeping your head up - Birdy)

"Still no sign of our cocky Casanova?" Parker asked impatiently as they looked around the crowds gathered outside Amity Hall.

How hard could it be to spot Dick Casablancas?

 _The sex hair... the long kind perfect for a girl to thread her fingers throught while a guy... well you know... and the bonze chiseled surf-bod that slays panties… That smile and that dimple… God that fucking dimple!_

She wasn't ashamed to admit that hot tanned surfers was definitely part of the appeal to choosing a college in sun-soaked Neptune. If her friend chose never to speak to Dick Casablancas again, her friends and family would probably applaud but Parker had to concede after having come face to face with Madison Sinclair… it was little wonder why the poor guys ideas of women and relationships was so warped. The bitch had almost projectiled her eyes right out of her head she'd rolled them so hard when Logan explained his father was back in town and that he was missing.

How would it have all turned out if he'd met Mac first?

 _Sliding doors._

"What would Dick be doing at a public courthouse?" Logan murmured looking at the list of firms leasing the building. _How did he even know about this place?_

"It's a little late for office hours," Parker commented looking at her wristwatch.

"It took us what… twenty minutes to get here?" Logan asked, sighing Parker nodded and shoved her hands into the pocket of her jacket.

"How far could Dick have gotten since we left Madison at that party?" she asked pulling out her copy of the Neptune city guide to see what was close by. The app had only said he was headed in this direction, it didn't mean that he had come here specifically.

"At this point, I think we need crystals and some hocus pocus," Logan quipped.

"Let's just stay grounded," Parker offered with a slight smile handing over the map and a sharpie.

"I wasn't aware I was levitating," Logan replied. The map in his hands looked like a city wide game of noughts and crosses. At this point he was wondering if Veronica had finished her master burglar routine, mentally squashing the image of her in a Black Widow style catsuit but he would definitely be circling back to that later, and seesawed back and forth with the idea of reporting Dick as an official missing persons or asking Sheriff Mars to put out an APB on his roommate.

"Mac never really told me about Cassidy," Parker commented quietly.

"Yeah… it's not something we ever bring up much," Logan replied solemnly.

 _But perhaps its something he should have been discussing with Dick…_ They'd both been so eager to power forwards into College life, they rarely acknowledged their demons were like a permanent weight they carried with them every step.

Maybe when they found him… he'd have a heart to heart with his best friend about them both seeking out some professional help to talk to rather than just keeping it in the dark.

Shadowboxing your own monsters could be exhausting and perhaps they were both guilty of not wanting to overburden one another with those ghosts.

Parker had her own nightmares too...

"If you ever need to talk... you know we are all here for you too," Logan said squeezing his companion on the shoulder.

"Thanks," she nodded taking the map back from him. "Uhm—if we go past the church tower we would be right next to the science building," Parker said raising her eyebrows.

 _How could they not have noticed they had been so close to the computer labs?_

 _Thank God Mac's probably already at the Sea Sprite motel by now._

"You think he's going to see Mac?" Logan asked in alarm.

"It's late, the main buildings apart from the library would be almost closed up by now," she said a small crease furrowing her brow. Most of the extracurricular activities usually held in the canteen had been canceled for the next week or so due to the ongoing investigation into Weevils death.

"Wouldn't hurt to check," Logan said pulling out his car keys.

Climbing into the car she shook her head as Be Kind to Me by Longhorne Slim filled the silence.

"Piz really needs to change that playlist," she muttered clicking on her seat belt.

"Come on girl... be kind to me... can't you see? I'm in misery" Vinnie screeched along as he thumbed through the bills on the coffee table.

Veronica rolled her eyes, so much for not leaving trace evidence. He was getting fibers from that shag throw all over his jeans.

"Hey! I was listening to that" he complained as she turned off the radio.

"Inconspicuous and your caterwauling are incompatible," she quipped.

"Sometimes your straight and narrow by the book way of thinking can make this gig a bit tougher on you kid," Vinnie sighed and reached for the cigar tin on the table, picking out a cigar and sniffing it.

"By the book? I'm standing in a deceased suspect's house without a warrant," she challenged him and then huffed in disgust as he picked up the cigar box and slipped it into his leather jacket inner pocket.

"What? Cubans.." he shrugged standing up.

 _So far they'd found nothing of significance._

"Professor Landry is adamant that someone's trying to set him up," Veronica told him turning back to searching the bookshelves.

Steve Botando was Mindy Odells ex-husband and if Weevil's body hadn't been found then he would have been the most likely candidate to hide the evidence with, but Steve Botando was dead 72 hours before someone had killed her friend.

Had the killer been smart enough to remove anything they'd planted here already?

"Well there's nothing here," Vinnie told her as he poked through the music collection and pocketed some more random items.

"Do you have to do that?" Veronica scolded him took the next pile from his hands.

"What? In a few years its called archaeology" he said shaking his head.

"Is that why you showed up with a duffle bag?" Veronica asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"Fine... lets get this done. The computer is empty, there's no gun in the house or the deputies would have found it after Lamb's... the guy has no shirts worth taking. He had no pets, and from the mail, he's got zero social life and we know he was dead at the time when someone killed _Prison Break_... there's nothing interesting about this dead man" Vinnie listed. "So since we know whoever did this is connected to the Dean, Mindy and your Professor we can assume Weevil was in the wrong place at the right time. Since I'm sure you have turned the Dean's life apart... My money is on the wife... if it was chances are Botando and the Dean was bugged," Vinnie surmised his cool blue eyes flicking from playful idiocy to a fierce intelligence as he handed her the small device.

 _Most times the killer was known by the victim_...

He hummed Blues Saraceno - Bad Man while he worked checking the likely spots for anything out of place and she searched for obviously feminine touches and looked for hidden cameras.

Veronica fired Wallace back a quick text when he sent her a quick picture of a dog walker taking notice of the car. They couldn't stay much longer.

They'd found Nothing. _Would there be time to check out Landry's before his release?_

"We have to go," Veronica told Vinnie while he fiddled with a light fixture.

"I'll pay a visit to the widow.. offer my _services_ ," Vinnie said with a lewd grin. "She's more likely to slip up if she thinks she can hire me to find anything to call off the hounds."

"Another dead end," she sighed in frustration. Picking up a pile of books and making sure the scene was as close to the way she'd found it.

 _Even if my new 'partner' is a klepto._

Any temptation to take him up on his offer to join his Detective Agency evaporated as she saw him slip the small bottles of scotch into his pocket.

She turned to see Vinnie trying to move back the cabinet where they'd checked the air vents behind it, placing her phone down to help him lift the other end when the dials on his small back device went cried out like something had stubbed its toes.

"Now that's some helicopter parenting" Vinnie chuckled. She had specifically used an older model which was harder to hack or keep electronic records of or trace than smartphones... she just hadn't considered it meant hers was easier to plant a bug in because you could access the battery. This wasn't paranoid Dad parenting... Nope, that tracker was in a small bracelet charm he'd given her the Christmas after Aaron Echolls tried killing them both.

"It wasn't my dad..." Veronica told him.

Picking up her phone she hurriedly popped the back casing off and found the small coin-shaped battery, identical to the one found in Landry's office phone.


	53. Chapter 53

(Sigrid – Everybody Knows)

"Fuck fuck fuck!" His hands were buried in his hair rubbing the forming lump before the moment coalesced and he realized that his problem was going to be much bigger if he let her escape. Mac was running like a bat out of hell away from the computer lab before she discovered the final few hours of the radio show must have been pre-recorded.

"Oh God… please no!" she said trying a few doors along the corridor but they wouldn't budge.

 _Piz and those voice on the radio earlier were gone… there was no safety here._

The canteen shutters were down, the radio booth was empty and she'd turned right into a dead end. The emergency exits were on the other side of the barrier keeping her trapped. The rape whistle Parker had given her would be useless in a deserted building…

 _Shit…_

Tim Foyle was hot on her heels. She looked around, trying to find something so she could duck out of sight if she needed to, but that wouldn't matter now. Security wouldn't be here until he called them to confirm lock up because he was the freaking fire warden. It was the access code used to get into the maintenance tunnel the night Weevil was killed. The CCTV footage in the halls showed him entering the blind spots and returning the same way almost a half hour later looking panicked.

 _How could everyone completely have missed the obvious?_

 _Who better to set up Professor Landry than the guy who collects his dry cleaning?_

Without those bloody clothes the Sheriff's department would have likely garnered no proof of Professor Landry's involvement in Dean Odells murder other than the affair with his wife.

 _If Clark Kent was a fucking murderer…_

The unassuming monster who had killed one of her friends… her heart cracked in her chest and she ground her teeth to stifle the sobs threatening to erupt from her body. Of course someone like Tim was overlooked, everything about him was beige and forgettable. He left no lasting impression and he seemed so bumbling and incompetent that he could just be disregarded, allowing most of his coming and goings to be unnoticed.

"Why?" Mac asked when he finally caught up to her. "How could you do that?"

"I guess the only thing I can do now is honesty…" Tim began catching his breath and pushing his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose. "Your little computer hack there really makes things awkward. I've been asked to chaperone and make sure you get to the Sea Sprite… and now… well… now there's going to be a lot of questions."

 _There was still time to salvage this… and if not… he always had that go-bag ready since the morning after he'd killed Cyrus. A quick plane trip to Belize and he could easily disappear…_

"Please don't hurt us," Mac sobbed her hand moving instinctively to cover her stomach.

"This doesn't have to be the end," Tim said.

"Is that what you told Weevil?" she cried stepping away from the shutter.

 _How far away was she from the next fire exit?_

"I'm not a bad person," he said in a reasonable tone she found infuriating.

"You certainly aren't a good one," Mac spat back at him.

"I never asked for this… I don't _want_ to hurt you… but everyone is a monster to someone… I only meant to get back at Landry but every time I try to correct my mistakes… things just gets worse.. and every once in a while I managed to convince myself that I'm a better person… but the more I try and fix it… people keep getting hurt… People keep getting killed. I am a sinner. If the air-conditioner hadn't needed fixing in Professor Daltons office, then that Eli guy wouldn't have gotten the maintenance request to check the boiler until the following morning… and everything would have been perfect.." Tim pleaded rubbing his temple his gaze fixed to hers, tears rolling down his eyes. "The hardest battles are fought in the mind. You've no idea what it's like to be scared of who you are, and what you can do."

"Well we'll figure it out… I know that right now you are thinking that it's never going to get better… but I promise you, there will be light." Mac said offering hand up in a non-threatening gesture.

Could she talk him down? Where was the nearest fire alarm?

 _Why the Hell had she left her phone behind when she hit him with her laptop before running?_

"You say that... and it's horrible to contemplate but you're situation makes for an easy solution. You kept crying about a futureless future… and so you just wanted to disappear and once I erase whatever it is you have dug up so no one else can find it," Tim told her reaching into his jacket and producing a gun. "I'm tired Mackenzie. I've come too far to turn back now. I can't. I won't."

 _Once you let the darkness inside… it never came back out… he still had some sleeping pills confiscated from a student of Landry's in his office._

 _Fake suicide?_

 _Or should he leave her clothes and belongings piled up on the beach and stash her somewhere until he had more time?_

"So you're just…" Mac swallowed unable to finish the sentence. "You'll show up tomorrow like nothing happened?"

"I'm so sorry," Tim said wiping his eyes.

"You really want **_more_** blood on your hands?" Mac asked.

 _Veronica would figure this out… he won't get away with it…_

"Making this harder isn't worth it, The stress, and pressure and the anxiety," Tim reasoned firmly aiming the barrel of the gun at her. "Cause-cause I can't help it.. It doesn't matter what I _want_ to do. There is only one way I can be sure that you won't tell anyone."

 _There was no going back in time. Pandora's treasures were all out of the box._

"Apology not accepted," she sobbed as he gestured for her to turn around.

 _There's no stopping now… there was no backing out…_ Tim told himself firmly. He'd make her hack into the buildings security again, and erase all footage of them tonight.

Then he'd finish it.


	54. Chapter 54

(Robyn - Baby Forgive Me)

 **Brayden Fields: Epic party at Sister's house. It's gonna be LIT!**

 **Logan: Dude pls. We have to talk.**

 **Natalia: Twerk that cute ass over to Beta Gamma Pi?**

 **Unknown: Where are you?**

 **23 Missed calls – Logan**

 **Dad: Ready to talk now after our last little hiccup?**

"Screw that," he muttered, tossing his phone back into his pocket. Dick knew eventually his father would get pissed off being dismissed like that but he honestly didn't care. The idea he was back in town and hadn't even visited his sons grave given how vacant of flowers or anything had been was like nails on a chalkboard in the back of his mind.

 _All this and nothing from Cindy…_

College Life.

It was meant to be all beers flowing freely, finding a fraternity-hood of party peers to age old with, to make those memories of spring breaks and the abundance of hot girls before they opted for the fake boobs, fake laugh, no calories please lifestyles, maybe he'd have met his starter wife.

Hell's he might have even opted to take a year off and go _Eurotripping_ to 'find himself.'

Dick had thought he'd have been fortunate to buy himself a half way decent degree and pass at least half of his classes-college didn't exactly let you pick up the yearly slack with summer school. He never thought he'd end up a father-ever-let alone before the second semester of his freshmen year. Nope, someone had left out that crucial information and now the whole campus looked different, so did the future.

Sometimes life provides what you need and not what you want… but there wasn't any part of him that didn't want this new path.

 _Cindy Mackenzie barefoot and pregnant waiting for him..._

He'd fucked up.

He swallowed hard at the memory of her hands clutching his shirt, her tear-filled grey eyes wide and pleading with him.

 _"I was going to tell you… Richard please… I love you."_

The way her body had twisted in his arms like the best kind of sin, offering herself to him completely before he pushed her away from him. Guilt almost halted his stride, and he was tempted to turn around, to take the cowards way out and pick up one of Logan's 97 phone-calls this evening.

He had to fix this right now. Isn't that what he'd promised Cassidy this afternoon when he's stood at the graveside talking to that chunk of stone?

 _He'd crossed an uncrossable line, and now the future he craved more than anything was at DEFCON 1 if she refused to forgive him._

Excuses, apologies, and plans of attack to explain his behavior did somersaults back and forth in his head, all jostling for position.

"What do Veronica Mars and ice-cream have in common? They are both ice cold," he'd teased Logan during their winter break trip to Aspen.

 _If she found him first… let's just say he'd lose more than a surfboard this time._

Girls he'd always thought were nothing more than a passing diversion, girls, like Madison and Lily Kane… they were only out to use and abuse a guy for malicious means, and the ones with brains would run from a guy like him as soon as the ties could be severed-just like his mother.

Veronica the vigilante had been an anomaly as far as he was concerned, and even then he wasn't entirely convinced that the angst Logan had gone through loving that girl made it worth it. His friend had earned his peace, lived with Lily Kane's ghost for years… and Veronica had intensity like she was at war with Neptune itself.

 _But Mac?_

 _His sweet Cindy?_

She was simple. Falling for her had been like riding a perfect wave. She loved singing along to obscure bands while she wrote code. She wanted movie nights after classes, hated getting sunburn but loved it when he spent time rubbing the sunblock onto her shoulders and then they never quite made it outside.

She was one of the warmest lovers he'd ever had, yet everything about her gave him brain freeze. Like when she smiled at him, he wanted to pause time, capture the moment in a time bubble and relive it over and over.

Mac was supposed to be off-limits but like any hard-headed red-blooded male he had to admit that the more he'd let her use his body, and the more she'd insisted on keeping them on the low. He knew those scraps of her attention would never be enough, and he'd set about making her fall for him.

The happiest memory he'd made in months was her in his room, wearing his t-shirt and moaning his name. She'd been talking about her plans for after graduation and the only coherent thought he'd had was _I want to be your forever._

This couldn't go on.. he'd spent last night unable to sleep because missing her was like a phantom limb. He'd kept reaching for her. He didn't want to fall in love with somebody else… he never wanted to be left a heartbroken wreckage watching her move on without him.

 _If he wanted the Mona Lisa, he'd have to mix the paint._

He'd just have to be honest with her, convince his baby momma that they were gonna be the greatest love story this town had ever seen.

What if she wouldn't forgive him?

Would she let him come back, give him a chance for one more try?

He'd pay any price.

 _The world's smallest handcuffs were wedding rings, he'd get down on one knee if he had to._

 _No one had a road map for their future, a lifetime without his little brother was the last thing he'd thought would be on his cards… getting caught up in the storm of falling in love with Mac… having a baby? He couldn't walk away. All corners he'd taken that were never sign posted but he was ready to try._

 _His road only went in the same direction as her whatever happened next._

 _But no one had a road map to their future, and he certainly never saw the shot coming before he'd walked into the science building pushing her to safety inside the computer lab when he'd threw himself between Mac, his unborn child and that bullet._


	55. Chapter 55

Billie Eillish - Lovely

"Do you think Dick is in there?" Parker asked spotting the familiar yellow sports car.

 _That was Dick's car…_ Logan felt uneasy as he pulled into the parking lot.

"Did you hear that?" Parker asked as she got out of the car. It rang out again, as Logan also snapped his head towards the science building.

 _Gun shots._

A sick feeling rolled through his stomach.

 _Surely his best friend wouldn't have…?_

Dick had more than a few pistols, Richard Casablancas Senior was quite the enthusiast. He'd even taken Logan to his first firing range.

"I heard, get back in the car, lock the doors and call the police," Logan ordered.

"Where are you going?" Parker asked in alarm.

"To help," he answered quickly tossing her the keys.

"What?!" Parker exclaimed. "Are you crazy?"

Since when did an unarmed person run TOWARDS the gunshots?

"Call for help!" Logan said.

"NO! You aren't Superman!" Parker said grabbing him by the arm.

The moment happened so quickly Mac could barely register it. Her puzzled grey eyes widened in shock before connecting with Dick's fierce blue as he slammed into her.

 _Dick was here?_

"Lock the door!" came the terse command.

Thrusting his body between her and Tim and pushing her inside as he hauled the computer lab door shut in the same motion.

 _Dick was **really** here? Swooping in like some avenging angel?_

Hell was when her bewildered mind caught up to the closed heavy door with both men on the other side. Her hand frozen on the handle.

"LOCK IT!" Dick shouted between grunts and thumps sounded like a fight before she screamed when the shots rang out.

"FUCK!" Tim roared looking at the newcomer clutching his side. Mac was now safely beyond his reach inside the computer processing lab and those doors had been designed specifically to withstand a school shooting.

Tim looked at the familiar Owen Wilson-esque frat boy and quickly weighed up his options; he didn't have the right set of keys to get into computer server room and by the time he went and found them Cindy Mackenzie would have already called the cops. He'd been prepared to get his hands a little bloody but there was no way to explain this away.

"Dick? Dick!" Mac screamed, her hands reaching for the lock the answering thud of his body falling against the heavy wood.

 _Was she going to lose him tonight? Why was he **here**?_

"Come out or I'll finish him!" Tim ordered or her.

"Cindy! Don't open that fucking door!" he rasped through pained breaths. "Don't come out!" he ordered. "No matter what you hear!"

 _No one had a road map to their future.. he'd just never figured he was the type to end his at the barrel of a gun._

"Dick?" she sobbed.

"No baby… don't… don't come out" he said softer.

The terror in her voice hurt worse than the puncture wound in his gut.

 _Stay in there, Cindy… stay safe…_

" _Please don't hurt him…_ **can you hear me?** Tim _Please_!" Mac begged her fists banging on the door. Every second was turning out worse than the last. "Please don't take him from me!" She cried as a thin pool of blood flowed beneath the door and spun to reach for her phone on the floor next to her shattered laptop.

"Just shut up and let me think!" Tim yelled pressing the heel of the .38 Special his forehead. "A few measly minutes of quiet!"

 _He was burned here… he had no option but to try and get ahead of it… to run._

"You just had to go and play fucking hero!" he snarled pointing the gun at Dick's head.

"Hero?" Dick coughed with a bitter laugh. "Trust me I'm not, you wanna blame me but you are the villain in this chapter."

Cursing and almost dropping her phone when she entered her security unlock pattern incorrectly, trembling hands clutched the small handset before instinct took over and Mac dialed to Veronica's father.

"I've ruined everything…" Tim murmured as he looked at the gun his hands in horror.

 _Was he really turning into this monster with no conscience?_

"She's best friends with the Sheriffs daughter… gun shots tend to attract a lot of attention…" Dick choked out with a taunting grin. Best part of playing football in middle school had always been the knack he'd found to get into his opponents heads, to break their game.

 _He had to find some way to get this psycho to get out of here, and as far away from Mac and their unborn child as possible._ _Dick was eternally grateful to whatever Deities had seen fit to get him to Mac in time._

"I have nothing…" Tim said, a dangerous glint in his eyes. The last thing Dick wanted was for him to decide he'd nothing left to lose and choose suicide by cop, shooting up the building and everyone else in it as he went.

 _Give them an easy way out, and its often what people would choose._

"No.. you have a head start… only been about 10 minutes right? But clock is ticking… so you better get running…" he advised through pained breaths. They could hear from the her frantic voice on the other side of the doorway that Mac was talking to someone.

 _He just had to hold on… help would be here soon… they would be safe…_

 _The most important lesson his father had ever taught him._ People were selfish creatures and they were hard-wired to look out of their own self-interests. That his father's lesson proved true of Tim Foyle and expelled the breath he was holding in relief as his adversary took his suggestion fled.

"It's okay baby… you just gotta wait" Dick said, trying to soothe her through the door, feeling her crouching on the other side. "It's okay… I'm letting you off the hook but as far as apologies go… you gotta admit this was a nice move. I love you..."

"Please don't leave me… you can't do this to me! You can't just **be you** … and then show up and do this hero shit and leave me… you can't!" Mac sobbed helplessly, he slid a hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing Logan.

"Hey buddy…" he said feeling woozy playing with the keys to his new condo. _Fate had a hilarious sense of humor… at least his dad wouldn't benefit from the new life insurance policy he'd signed over today._

"Dick! Where are you?" Logan demanded casting a glance at Parker.

"That's a lot of blood…" Dick murmured weakly before the line went dead.


	56. Chapter 56

(Joel Adams - Please Don't Go)

Cindy MacKenzie often used to joke the 09ers were more bionic than human by the time they graduated college. Everything about them was Mean Girl plastic, particularly her counterpart, Madison Sinclair, the girl who led the life Mac always thought she should have had.

She might not have been synthetic with a pre-programmed personality, but right now, Mac was definitely on autopilot. The EMT's had given her a quick once over, mentioning something like 'shock' before she had been huddled into the back of the Ambulance with Parker and Dick. Sheriff Mars was going to meet them in the emergency room for an update, and Logan said something about being right behind them. Her mind had flicked an 'off' switch, to help protect itself, the rest of it was a blur and even now she still couldn't make much sense of it.

 _Right now though…_

It was like she'd stepped outside of herself when she'd opened that door and saw all the blood. Tim had shot Dick because she couldn't stop herself from poking her cute little nose into his affairs.

Dick had been unconscious by the time she'd opened the door, clutching a set of keys in his hand.

How had Parker and Logan found them so fast?

 _"It's okay baby… you just gotta wait… I love you…"_

Logan had done most of the talking since they arrived, his large hands scribbling furiously over the paperwork placed in his lap. Mac stood watching as the medical staff started cutting away Dick's clothes, a dance of professional hands moving in a lifesaving symphony as they added tubes and wires.

"We have two entries on the left side, but only one exit," a tall man in green scrubs announced.

"He's allergic to penicillin," he told the nurse who took the clipboard back.

 _There was so much she didn't know about the man she loved…._

"Good to know, right now he's being taken to surgery, so it's going to be sometime before I'll have an update for you" she informed him.

"Surgery?" Mac repeated, the word felt foreign.

"There will of course be additional reports to fill out, it's standard with an admission like this," the nurse continued indicating the seated area as the doors between them closed and they wheeled Dick away. "The deputy from the Sheriffs department will be arriving soon."

"W-where are they taking him?" Mac said as she panicked grabbing the older woman by the arm.

"Is he a relative?" she asked placing a gentle but firm hand around Mac's wrist.

"He's my everything," Mac replied numbly.

 _The world has so much going on in it and it's bigger than our tiny pieces of grief._

"Is he going to make it?" Parker asked Logan quietly as they got Mac checked out after she almost fainted.

"I don't know," Logan answered softly. The truth of those words finally sinking in, he wasn't sure if his best friend was going to survive this…"Veronica's on her way here."

"They think the second bullet is lodged in his kidney," Parker swallowed looking nervously over her shoulder not wanting her brunette roommate to overhear. "They mentioned it on the journey over."

 _Where did these belong to? Dick's new place?_

Logan looked down at the blood soaked keys in his hands.

"I should wash my hands…" Logan said absently.

 _He should have gone to help when he'd heard those gun shots…_

"Sheriff Mars will be here soon," Parker told him.

"Tim Foyle is like a ghost. Zero digital footprint. No social media presence other than his faculty profile and a LinkedIn Account. The only photograph we have managed to find of him was one faxed over by his ex-fiancée who Veronica told us about," Sheriff Mars told Sacks as they entered the emergency department.

 _He'd interviewed Tim Foyle twice in the few weeks since Dean Odell's murder. Nothing about him had registered as threatening or worthy of a second look. Nothing about him fit the general profile of a criminal suspect._

Fury curled his fists around the black evidence bags in his hands, he hated to do this. Logan, Parker and Mac needed to be processed and Dicks clothing from the shooting needed to be collected for evidence.

 _He'd bugged Veronica's phone._

 _"Tim Foyle… he killed Weevil… he's shot Dick… I need help!"_

Guilt churned in his gut at the thought of Dick Casablancas fighting for his life and Keith almost hadn't even answered Mac's call after their recent encounter at the Neptune Grand. Sheriff Lamb was being buried tomorrow, and Eli Navarro the day after, between the mayors office and his overtime budget... He'd forgotten how much red tape was involved in holding Office.

"There have been several local media outlets asking for an official confirmation of an active shooter on campus," the taller deputy said. "We've locked down the scene but I'm not sure how long we have before the ambulance chasers make their way here."

"Keep it as quiet as we can for now, last thing we want is a panic," Keith told him.

Tim Foyle was methodical, clever and used to people underestimating him. He'd been anything but typical but Keith would not make that mistake again.

"Wilson, Briar and Ryan's are canvasing the campus but so far there are no witnesses and no signs of Foyle's car. Inga said she's trying to get hold of the State troopers and San Diego PD." Deputy Sacks continued but quickly drew silent when they caught sight of the blood soaked trio.

"He was gone by the time we got there," Logan said shaking his head.

Professor Landry was now being questioned about his assistant.

The statements didn't take very long; it was quick enough to slot the pieces together. Hard to remember that these three were barely more than kids. Deputy Sacks took some preliminary photographs, and the lab tech from the hospital assisted with some swabs for gun powder residue.

 _Forty-five minutes since the shooting… It only took an hour to be half way to Mexico from Hearst._

 _Goodbye cruel Neptune…_

 _"Tim's had access to all the brightest minds and perfect murder plots of students the Hearst students for years, this isn't a game… he's way ahead of us" Veronica had advised her dad._

His degree in Criminology and knowledge of the local area, possible escape route planning all gave Tim Foyle an advantage. He wouldn't head for the border but it was easy to forget that there were more ways to escape Neptune than heading for Mexico. If he was smart enough to avoid trying to drive out of town, then chances were he would try and make his escape via the docks or the airport.

 _He knew how to change up his appearance, how to disappear…_

"Veronica is on her way," Logan assured Mac as he offered her the Neptune Sheriff's department fleece.

 _That kid was as wrapped up in the Chaos in Neptune as his daughter..._


	57. Chapter 57

(Joseph Bell - Haunted (Beyoncé cover)

"Forget to tuck me in?" a hoarse masculine voice demanded.

 _It wasn't the first time she'd flushed at the sight of him like that… and it certainly wouldn't be the last…_

 _Please God no…_ Mac didn't need to turn around to know it was the last human being on planet Earth she ever wanted to see again.

Dick Casablancas.

Sauntering towards her in a green polo shirt some surfer shorts. She straightened up even though her legs wanted to shake, adjusting her laptop bag over her shoulder and tried not to look so frazzled. Wasn't it enough she was already a lecture behind and she'd missed half of the classes she had managed to get to because she'd been nursing one hell of a hangover and trying to forget that night of mind-blowing, earth shattering sex?

 _Nothing in my life hadn't ever been pre-planned or premediated until that night…._

 _Hot.. wild.. crazy…_

 _Now all I wanted was a quiet morning… go to class… eat a veggie burger… think about how much taking up yoga would improve my bedroom gymnastics… instead I get a morning full of Dick…_

"On what do you base that assumption?" Mac retorted quickly eager to escape now that her lady hormones were whispering inappropriate suggestions.

Sexy suggestions… sex… like she'd had with Dick Casablancas on almost every surface imaginable in his penthouse suite in the Neptune Grand. Sex that evidently, he was now remembering as well from his wolfish expression.

"On my bed last night… you weren't in it," he said stepping in front of her path, one brow raised as he fixed her with a watchful expression.

 _Damn he had great face… all masculine lines and those sculpted lips…_

 _"How dare you?"_ she snapped mutinously as a few people walking by stared. She wanted to slap him, hard. Shaking her head angrily she tucked a tendril of dark hair behind her ear.

 _Drinks in, wits out… Can't blame the Tequila for this one Mac, because it was 100% the flaming sambucca's that got you into this mess but that's no excuse for this really sober Tsunami in your panties._

She should have known he'd confront her directly sooner or later.

 _What the hell did he even want? Fine, she knew exactly what he wanted…_

Dick held her gaze, confident, bold and a little scary. "I wasn't aware you needed a formal invitation, but I hope you're well rested… you'll need it."

"You're in violation of the restraining order," Mac stammered and tried to side-step him and continue to class.

"Restraining order?" he asked following her movement and crossing his arms.

"The one I have against insanity… you know repeating the same mistake over and over expecting a different result?"

Blue eyes flashed fire. "Results like hot sex?"

 _Don't answer that…_

She opened her mouth and closed it again. Right then she wanted the ground to just open up and swallow her. She was not going to enter some hellish battle of post-coital wills with Dick. The cornucopia of Hearst sorority sisters already knew that he was the perfect guy for a no-strings-attached screaming good time.

 _And so do you…_ a taunting treacherous voice mocked.

"If I say 'yes' you are going to take it personally aren't you?" she sighed. Horror filled her at the idea of being subject to the full Casablancas relentless flirting, charm and being cornered in dark hallways with seductive whispers.

 _A girl could only be so strong.._

"You're wasting your time and mine," Dick declared spreading his hands wide. A flush moved under his skin as her stormy grey eyes moved over him.

 _He was all muscle, lean and tall but not bulky and after she'd let her greedy hands feverishly learn every inch of tanned skin beneath those ridiculous shirts… Calvin Klein worthy abs and those powerful legs…_

The fog in her eyes cleared and she blinked away whatever had caused those grey eyes to darken like an approaching storm. His smile turned cocky and sure.

He wished like anything he could climb inside her head, know if she was recalling as much of how their bodies had fit together as he was… if she'd been as tormented over the last two days as he'd been.

 _Why the hell had she left the following morning?_

"Why?" she asked licking her lips. "You don't even like me."

 _Why? Because You're supposed to be labelled under a big red X and everything… but its more like a bullseye… I wanna bury myself inside you and see if it's really as good as I keep jerking off about…_

"You're a female, I'm alive.. I'm easy" he shrugged with a cocky grin.

God he was getting hard, it was so easy to imagine her innocent wide eyes staring up at him while she sobbed his name… He'd been sitting in his bed this morning realizing how naturally it felt she belonged there.

 _How much it grated on him that she wasn't…_

Her eyes narrowed. "Well I'm not!"

Hedonistic and Mac didn't belong in the same sentence and he knew it.

"You're sure?" he teased, running a hand through his blond hair, a predatory glint in his eye.

She didn't need to think of him primed for the kill like a lion when she was obviously all he had on his menu... Her sexy white skin took on the most alluring strawberry-tint as he approached. Her legs began to shake, her blood pumping in a heavy pulse.

"We have to stop…" she said with a tremble as he brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers, leaning closer. Frozen trapped by the heat of his gaze, her legs were useless.

"I've been dreaming about you, Mac… I want to taste you," he whispered, his heavy stare travelling over her in a seductive slow tease, he was tempted to cover the pouty lip she chewed with his own, to cup her pert breasts with those hardened nipples and knead them with his fingers like a cat.

 _She had all kinds of natures bounty going on under that dark shirt… how he'd never noticed in high school was evidence of a major oversight on his part…_

"Mac!" a male voice called, releasing her from the moment.

Fumbling with her laptop strap she stepped away from him and smiled awkwardly to the newcomer.

"Bronson!" she said recovering quickly and her obvious relief to have an excuse to end their encounter grated on Dick.

"Hey!" the stranger smiled in greeting, wrapping an arm over shoulder.

"Sup?" Dick said, cutting a glare at Mac, trying to resist the urge to resort to chest thumping like a caveman.

"Dick, you remember Bronson from the other night…" Mac said, her grey eyes unflinching.

"Not particularly," he huffed.

 _Not as much as I remember your do-me heels and sexy as fuck underwear as I drove into you over and over and we did things to each other that it should be illegal in all 50 states..._

"Bronson Pope… my boyfriend" she told him.

"What are you thinking about?" Parker asked as she held out a small cup of lukewarm soup in a plastic vending machine cup. They were helpless to do much more than wait on news from the doctors. University restrictions be damned… She wasn't leaving her friend alone right now.

 _How long had Dick been in surgery?_

 _How long had Mac been sitting here rehashing old memories and mistakes that had led them to this point before little player number 3 had entered the game?_

 _If you build your love on lies… you better run faster than the truth…_

"Where's Logan?" the short brunette asked taking the small cup from her roommate.

Her grey eyes darting around the room, hypervigilance Parker guessed.

"He's not far, he's with Wallace talking to the Hearst acting administrator. Veronica came by a little while ago while you were sleeping, and I think she's gone with her dad to look around… Tim's place, seeing if they can catch any clues on how to find him," she explained.

Veronica walked around the shoe box apartment with her dad, there wasn't much personal here but there was a slew of different costumes, alias' and a DVD collection of Noir Detective movies and James Bond classics.

 _Time reveals all truths…_

It was something her dad had repeated often during the Lily Kane murder investigation when the odd journalist wanted a soundbite during a slow news week.

 _There was no way around grief... only through... Logan needed to be with Mac and Dick right now... and she needed to be here..._

A single spark could set the air on fire, there was so much combined intensity between the Mars duo as they tore apart each clue. Mortality took on a different meaning when you were 20 as opposed to 50, and what Tim Foyle had done to Eli Navarro, and what he'd tried to do to Mac when she carried more than gingerbread in the oven told Keith Mars that this was a dangerous individual, and that he was more than willing to let his daughter use all the arrows in the Mars quiver.

 _Evolution was survival of the fittest… just how adaptable was Tim Foyle really?_

 _How easy would it be to escape a town so small it barely had its own zip-code?_


	58. Chapter 58

Caro Emerald - That Man blasted through the wall from the other side of her dorm room. Her stomach somersaulted as she removed the brown paper from the parcel she'd just received from their RA Courtney moments ago.

 _A small frame in her hands about the size of an A4 sheet of paper…_

"An unsolicitated Dick pic?" Mac groaned.

It was renaissance style oil portrait of Dick Casablancas, one arm casually rested behind his head with leaning back against the dark satiny pillows of a large king size bed, naked except for a leopard print throw curled tastefully over the more anatomically interesting parts. An infuriating mix of appreciation of the artists skill and jealousy at the thought of someone seeing him like this made her shake her head. The artist had made him look so beautifully, utterly male with an unmistakably heated expression in his blue eyes.

Even the painted version of Dick was taunting her as she avoided the flesh and blood one.

 _Come to bed with me…_

Her breasts tightened, the thought of rubbing her hands through that tangled blonde hair and running her tongue along that taut tanned skin and feeling his body possess hers as those powerful muscles shifted her into position beneath him made the temperature of her blood rise.

When the _hell_ had he had time to commission a freaking oil painting of himself?

Looking down at the small card that accompanied it.

"I want you naked in the worst possible way."

Thank Heavens Parker was not here or there was no way she'd be able to explain this. She wasn't sure if it was insured, or if it would count as criminal damage if she threw it away should he demand it back, so she opted to slide it beneath her bed until she could figure out what to do.

Vowing that _this_ was the closest Dick Casablancas was ever going to get to her bed… ever!

Why was he doing this to her? Surely Hearst had enough mindless cheerleader lemmings to torment?

He'd paid someone in the Hearst Hacktivism & Ethics Network (HHEN) to hijack her laptop remotely and so far her attempts to remove his access hadn't disappeared completely. The patch her classmate Brant had promised could fix it wouldn't be ready until tomorrow. She had been ignoring him since he'd sent her an email of a dry cleaning bill. If this is how kids with Helicopter parents felt when they had those spy apps put on their stuff to invade their privacy.. she was considering offering her security upgrading services for free.

Opening her laptop and clicking the chat screen. He must have been playing a game but after a few moments of seeming confused a flash of perfect white teeth lit up his face.

"It's not happening," she told him firmly waving the little note at the screen.

"How can you be so cold after you took my virginity?" he gasped with mock hurt and deep color flared in her cheeks when she realized that he was laying on his bed at the Neptune Grand.

"You were **not** a virgin!" Mac growled, her narrowed gaze cut through all the charm he was slinging her way.

Blowing out his breath he shrugged. "I might have been…You didn't answer my calls."

"I was on a date," she said simply.

"With Bronson?" he said in a hard voice, passing a hand over his blonde hair.

"With my boyfriend," she corrected, it was easier to be firmer with him this way than having the disadvantage of having to look up at him and smell that citrus and sandalwood tones of his cologne.

Crystal blue eyes narrowed. "So you said yesterday."

 _This is like my own private hell… I have to stop remembering so much…_

"Why are you being like this?" she pleaded. In response he sent her a small link to the CCTV footage of the two of them making out in the elevator before they headed to his penthouse.

"The full version is the usual highlights of an X-rated movie…" he shrugged and she took a visibly deep breath.

"Fine! You're very… skilful…. Can we just forget it happened?" she asked. He let out an angry bark of laughter, his blue eyes almost looking hostile.

 _Was she **serious**? _

He had a hard-on that could break bricks and he couldn't stop replaying the feel of his hard length pressed against her bare belly and easing into her bare sex at the moment between one breath and their next kiss and her grey eyes opening wide, pulling him away like a fucking riptide into that bliss at the tactile proof of their bodies joining. Her heels digging into his backside for leverage as they met one another thrust for thrust into insanity.

"Why? You practically begged.. 'yes Dick… touch me… right there... oh yes _please_.. Dick… like that!' No one has ever gotten to me the way you have. The way you do," he said casting her a baffled look.

"For a lot of valid reasons!" she said defensively, squeezing her thighs together.

 _He made it so hard to say no…. to stay away…._

"Then come out with me… you can blame those frou-frou drinks again.. None of those excuses I give a damn because you have an excellent body, small but lushly curved just like a woman should be… and even if you gave me your sweet ass right now.. I want to do so many things…I don't know if it would be enough…" Dick said trailing his fingers through his wavy blond hair, leaving him looking freshly molested. His blue eyes looked like they were trying to bend her to his will through the screen.

"That's out of line!" Mac scolded. "I didn't offer you my…"

"Doesn't take a whole day to recognise sunshine… this is going to happen again.. and often… you know it, and I know it!" he said, impatience radiating from him.

Furiously she slammed the top down on her laptop and grabbed her student swipe pass. Forget the patch, she was just going to use the security server in the computer lab. The man was clearly insane, unfortunately Sheriff Lamb would be less than useless even if she did finally decide enough was enough… her dorm room was the only guaranteed Dick Free Zone. The computer lab was blissfully empty so she could work undisturbed.

"What?!" she cursed spluttering coffee down herself as glanced towards her tablet to see Dick on the screen.

"Kapow! You don't wanna see me… here's my face!" he taunted.

"You hacked my facebook account?" Mac growled, trying to dab down the coffee free from her white top.

Great… this was going to stain if she didn't get it washed soon. Thankfully at this hour most of the building was empty aside from the occasional poetry reading or staff meeting in the Hearst canteen. She pulled out a fresh shirt from her bag, a habit picked up after being left naked and abandoned in a hotel room by Cassidy Casablancas at the end of Senior year.

"Because you refuse to talk terms!" he said scowling as her wicked hips moved away from the screen and she pulled off her shirt.

 _She could go back to her boyfriend but did she have to be such a fucking tease?_

"This is called _stalking_!" Mac told him firmly. "Where are you? You're _not_ welcome!"

 _Was there such a thing as an exorcism for electronic devices?_

"Within walking distance," he said, his gaze focused ahead as he continued moving. Shock etched in her features.

 _Oh no…_ Mac looked at the computer lab door and thought about grabbing her computer. Veronica was on library duty right?

"Within walking… you're tracking me?!" she exclaimed. She shook her head refusing to be deterred.

 _I am planked in the middle of some game board I'd no idea we started with no dice…_

Dick was still in surgery when Logan called Veronica for an update.

"Asshole's gonna be living life like El Chapo," Deputy Myers snorted to Vinnie at the latest information from the Catalina Island security liaison.

Frowning Sheriff Mars took the tablet from the Deputy and skimmed over the details.

"A possible passenger matching Tim Foyles description was on the tourist ferry," he told Veronica who quickly took the tablet from her dad. "They are checking the manifests, passenger logs and using photo-recognition and the picture you faxed so we can rule out cruise liners. We've got the Neptune Department yacht fuelled up and San Diego PD is trying to get us a chopper out there, but there's no guarantee that we will get boots on the island and some of the commercial flights out have already left. If he's already in the air on his way to Mexico by the time we get there… there's nothing much we can do but hand the case over to the federal authorities."

They'd found the recordings on Tim Foyles hard drive from all his bugged devices, there were probably a few dirty conversations between her and Logan she should take time out later to remove from before her father's blushing ears found them.

She was a good girl… and if she wanted her fiancée to keep breathing.. she needed her dad to keep thinking that way.

The evidence so far pointed to the Alias Dave Bannion, named after the lead character in a 1953 movie _The Big Heat_ where a police officer investigates the suicide of a rogue fellow officer, Tom Duncan, whose wife, Bertha Duncan says her husband had lately been in ill health.

 _Even his getaway inspiration wasn't original…. Well this is one hat-trick that asshole won't see coming._

"Actually… The main thing is to have the money. I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, rich is better," Veronica said quoting one of the characters from The Big Heat, Debbie Marsh pulling out her phone to dial Zoe Galen.

Surely she would know the whereabouts of her on-again/off-again boyfriend Nick O'Connell, Catalina Island's very own air marshall?


	59. Chapter 59

(Can You Hold Me – NF)

Wallace had asked to hang out again tonight… and she'd blown him off to, well blow Dick off, again. She was not this person, she didn't sneak around and make excuses and lie to her friends.

She didn't take pregnancy tests, and talk to Neptune clinic nurses about her far too active sex life. She lived her life out in the open and not in some shame closet.

'Your attitude determines your direction' her green t-shirt hadn't helped strengthen her resolve today. Maybe that other one she'd picked up from Freshmen Orientation 'you can have results or excuses, not both' would have been more successful?

 _Relying on motivational slogans was definitely the last refuge of a desperate mind._

Mac bit her thumbnail as she paced the room nervously. Dick would be here soon, she'd stood him up earlier at the Serenity Inn… determined that she would be strong enough to get control of herself and not give into this again today… but emotions were messy and unpredictable and if you were to ask Mac how she felt about Dick Casablancas… that was just as messy and unpredictable. The push-pull of Dick, the way he moved in time with her felt like a song they were built to dance together.

The steps she couldn't stop taking in his direction no matter how hard she tried to forget the words. When she looked at him, she stopped thinking… and everything got messy and clear all at once.

 _You can't just pause Game… this thing refused to go quietly into the friendzone no matter how many times she tried to say goodbye… they were like fire on fire... why would she keep reaching out for the gasoline?_

She'd been committed to calling this no-strings insanity off today… yet here she was, primped, polished and shaved to perfect summoning him over, yet again.

Why did she always surrender to this craving? It was an irresistible passion beyond reason to belong to me… and if she did that.

She'd get lost.

"Hi," she said opening the door as he stepped inside. There was none of his usual cocky cat got the cream grin, he didn't touch her, just walked to the middle of her room, he didn't say a word until she had closed the door. His expression was veiled as he turned before sitting down on the end of her bed. "I'm sorry…"

"You didn't even show… enjoy your date?" he declared angrily.

Was he _jealous_? Date? A small crease furrowed her brow before her mouth opened in a small 'o'. She'd told him she was going for coffee with that computer hacker guy Max to fix the last of the bugs from her laptop before she'd bailed early and went to the student health centre.

 _He certainly hadn't seemed too lonesome at lunch with that Beta Gamma Pi chick Nadia today._

"I've been trying not to take it personal, this little game you play of pretending you don't like me… I know this is just sex… I don't regret a fucking second of it… but…" he continued, his blue eyes fixed somewhere at her feet.

She hadn't realized how much she'd missed him being here until he was there, filling up the space like he owned it. Her pewter-grey eyes drank him in.. his lean, muscular build made her feel minute in comparison.

"This feels like an ultimatum," she said stepping closer to the bed, threading her fingers through his hair and cupping his face. His eyes snapped to hers in challenge, the unspoken message was clear. _We are either all in, or I'm done…_

"Maybe it is… maybe I need someone I can actually **_be_** with.. you're gonna miss me so bad when I'm gone.." he told her firmly but his fingers grazed the back of her thighs, pulling her between his long powerful legs.

 _Smooth and practised._ _For a rich boy he had callused hands…_

"What if we gave it a shot?" she said, something hot and shivery moving through her body. A spasm of lust gripped between her legs and bit her lower lip to reign in the raw desire.

 _Mutual combustion…_

When he was gone, she felt like she was teetering at the edge of a canyon, but when he touched her… all those doubts from before melted away.

She hadn't realised she was staring until his hands gripped her slim hips and tugged her down onto his lap. Her hands still buried in his head of thick blonde hair. His cheekbones would have made a woman weep, the sculpted lines of his face and long lashes were just the frame of those ocean-blue eyes.

 _This man could make her drift out to sea…_

"It's rude to stare…" he teased squeezing her ass and pulling her against the hardened length of him.

"It's rude to ignore my question," she countered breathlessly.

Before she had the wits to stop him he was reaching out and for her and pulling her t-shirt off over her head, leaving her clamping her legs around his waist to anchor herself.

"Much better," he grinned.

"Parker will be home tonight…" Mac said regretfully, her whole body still sizzling from where his fingers trailed down her back to her hips.

His hot gaze swept up and down her chest and he nuzzled at her neck.

"I kept the key," he said throatily tugging her earlobe between his teeth.

 _She'd have to lie to Parker like a kid lying to their parents sneaking out to a party…_

"If I stay with you tonight…" she swallowed tense in the circle of his arms. His gaze was intent on the gentle swaying of her breasts, beautifully rounded and pert, their sexy nipples pointed… begging for his mouth. His eyes were a dark blue now, the pupils were huge. He knew she wanted this, a soft moan as his fingers brushed over the eager flesh, a primal, urgent request.

The cherry flush on her pale skin was like a fire of under the surface reaching out begging for his touch, his mouth, his tongue… His thumb tracing the two dimples of venus above her ass, weighing up how much time they would have to wait before her roommate came home vs how long the drive to his room at the Serenity Inn.

"Not here," he said roughly, his breathing uneven. He knew if he started she'd come apart in his arms into oblivion and he'd have to carry her to his car.. the thought of redressing her again made everything in his groin rebel and he could almost feel his balls start a riot. It would be a torture he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy… if he had one of those.

 _Hold on brother._ Logan ordered silently.

 **V: We got him.**

Veronica was off saving the world, taking down one more bad guy at a time while Wallace stayed with Logan, mostly outside the intensive care ward Dick was being kept, watching a tear-streaked Mac keeping vigil at his bedside.

"Finally some good news," Logan sighed, taking the small sandwich that Wallace offered, times like this made him feel absolutely useless. He'd do anything for his friend, to protect him… but this was out of his hands. Dick was off the operating table, but he wouldn't be out of the woods for a while.

 _Knock knock knocking on heavens door…._

Tim Foyle had been officially apprehended by a colleague of Veronica's contact, he would be detained and returning to Catalina Island into the custody of Neptune acting Sheriff Keith Mars.

 _Veronica Mars on a case?_

 _Ready, aim, fire._

Piz had arrived earlier, taking Parker back to the Dorms with him on the way whenever the nurses started making noise about overcrowding the hallways. The next few hours were critical to see if there was going to be anymore internal damage or if he was still at risk of infection.

"Is it true he lost a kidney?" Wallace asked quietly.

"Yeah, Dr Holtz said they have to let him stabilize for a bit before doing an x-ray, ultrasound, CT, and MRI to show any damage to the spine, abdominal organs, or blood vessels" Logan swallowed.

"This is literally my worst nightmare, right here," Wallace confided looking at all the wires and tubes.

"Lucky?" he asked the darker man who just nodded.

The late janitor of Neptune High. A war vet, who had gone a little off the rails and came to school to scare the students with an unloaded gun before he was killed by the school security guard. No one liked to be faced with their demons… and Logan was sure that Lucky featured regularly in his companions nightmares.

 _Coming close to the end like that left its mark and we all bleed the same._

"As if I don't have to worry enough about that when I get pulled over. I don't think I ever prayed to be Luke Cage more than that day.." Wallace quipped.

That was part of the reason why sometimes Logan felt unworthy to be around Veronica, after that fire in Tijuana, he'd gotten the hell out of there, but when faced with a shooter in his high school? Wallace overpowered him and was shot with what turned out to be a blank.

 _How often did Veronica go against her own morals to stay with him because she loved him?_

Yet no matter how morally righteous either of them were. Living their lives was another story… the inequalities between them even if both had come from the same 09er zipcode would still exist because of something as stupid as skin colour.

Inequalities that meant Weevil's death as an ex-con wasn't as widely reported as former Sheriff Lamb's.

 _Privilege he'd done nothing to earn._

Logan nodded in sympathy. "Wallacelivesmatter," he quipped.

"Dicklivesmatter," Wallace replied.

Mac wondered if he was even aware of her fingers threaded through his.

 _He certainly didn't look like that oil painting right now…_ Any moment now she expected him to wake up and grin, say something ridiculous like "Bazinga! I got this.. I'm fine.. I'm amazing!"

"I've never been as scared when they put you on that table and took you away, there's nothing that scares me more than the thought of losing you. So you can't go… you have to wake up soon. You have to get better because that's not a dick move. That would make you a real asshole and I'm not letting you off the hook that easy…." Mac said wiping the tears away from her face. "I'm having your baby… I can't imagine a world with you gone… you can't make me do this alone.."


	60. Chapter 60

He didn't hear the familiar ringtone Gavin DeGraw - Soldier instead it was the cheerful voicemail.

"Hey it's Dick… don't leave me hanging…"

Short, economical, upfront.. and totally Dick. Logan hung up. He didn't leave a message, the phone probably needed charged.

"Hello?" Logan called out walking onto the ward through a sea of half-closed curtains. Medical staff had sent them out of the ward hours ago to allow him time to sleep undisturbed.

It felt like three days. Especially knowing that on at least one occasion he'd flatlined.

Emergency contact privilege meant Logan received the call less than an hour ago from the hospital that he was finally awake. They were hardly the picture of domestic bliss, but this was his best man, his brother in the end… outside of the Mars family, Dick Casablancas was all he really had.

 _The butterflies in his stomach were running riot, he didn't know what to expect._

Sheriff Mars advised it was best to do some recon and see what they were dealing with, and he agreed it was wise before exposing a vulnerable Mac to more trauma. Dick was one of the few people who'd stuck by him through lean times. He'd help protect his family.

Deputy Sacks and Veronica had gently convinced Mac to travel back with them to finish giving her statement and help retrieve the CCTV evidence she'd found of Tim Foyle the night Weevil had been killed. Logan promised to update her with any news. Wallace had taken her back to the dorms to shower and change with Parker insisting she try to rest and they'd bring her back first thing.

"Thing's that bad without me you have to go soliciting hospital wards?" the familiar voice joked. Hearing the sound he turned around. Logan saw his roommate propped up against the thin ward pillows. His eyes lacked their usual spark, like that essential fire had been doused but he sat there bold and unaffected as a freshly neutered big cat.

 _A little sore… still majestic._

"Dude, you're gonna have to hold it," Dick declared as he waved the bed pan at Logan who stood looking comically confused.

"What?" Logan asked with wide eyes looking nervously around the room, and Dick tried not to burst out laughing at the panic in his expression.

"I have to pee… and I don't want one of these orderlies like manhandling me, so you're gonna have to bro-up and help me out," he said gesturing to the metal bed pan again.

"Yeah, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Logan quipped scratching the back of his head feeling absurdly emotional at the teasing tone in his friends voice. As if he had just called over with breakfast after a night out and just spent last several hours hoovering on the brink of death on an operating table.

"You are the _worst_ at this comfort thing…" Dick said rolling his eyes. "You don't know the value of a moment until becomes a memory.. someday you'll regret not holding my penis."

"Now you're being petty," Logan said.

"Damn right I'm pretty.. but no need to make it weird," Dick said putting the bed pan back onto the small medical table beside him.

"I'm the one making this weird?" Logan retorted with a raised eyebrow. "How much morphine do they have you on?"

Dick shifted his gaze to the drip hanging beside him and shrugged.

"They caught him?" he asked wincing as he pushed his dishevelled blonde hair away from his face.

"Yeah- yeah they did," Logan nodded in concern.

"Do I have to take another bullet for you to quit looking like such a sadsack?" Dick complained swatting Logan on the shoulder. "I'm fine… but I think going forward we should start selling Veronica t-shirts, get her a Dog the Bounty Hunter reality show… I'm thinking Go Bobcats," Dick joked.

 _Conversations with Dick rarely went beyond the superficial… this was going to take weeks to heal, recovery was going to be slow and meant he would have to make several life-style changes if he planned on taking advantage of any long healthy life he could have._

"Awake again Mr Casablancas?" a short nurse in peach scrubs smiled as she pulled aside the curtain.

"And alive, it's a good day, hello Caitlyn" Dick teased, giving her the full Casablancas charm.

Logan smothered a grin, half-drugged and missing a kidney and his friend was still convinced of his devilish good looks to go flirting with the nurses.

 _Anything legal age, under 40 and female…_

"Well let's keep you that way," she grinned picking up his chart. "Dr Hawkesworth took samples for your labs?"

"The Dr McDreamie who looks like Jeff Bridges?" he asked as she adjusted his fluids, and changed over the saline.

"I'll have to tell him you said that," she chuckled fixing the setting and stepping back to the bed. "Now… how is your comfort level?" she asked tilting her head in the direction of the bed pan. "Any _urgent business_ to take care of while I'm here?"

"Nah, I'm all good," Dick smiled back as Logan gritted his jaw as he crossed his arms.

"Okay.. then here's your order form for today's dinner, we will be giving you a sponge just after lunch time visiting hours, so if there's anything you would like to arrange for someone to bring…" she said looking over at Logan. "Some people like to have their own robes to feel a little more at home."

Logan nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

"Oooh- my mango conditioner or my hair will get frizzy," Dick commented picking up the menu sheet. His eyes were riveted to the words, yawning he slumped back and rubbed a hand over his face. His back was broad and strong, but right now Logan couldn't help but notice how much effort those simple gestures were. His head felt wooly and the beep-beep of a machine at the end of his ward had kept him half alert. "I'm so fucking tired…"

"Should I tell them to hold off on the parade and balloons then?" Logan quipped.

"I'd settle for a medal... maybe one of those big sky banners?" Dick shrugged and his companion laughed recalling the time he'd chartered a small plane in junior high to carry a Weller Academy Suck signed Dick banner across a rival teams football field. It had started an almost state wide debate about the use of private coaches and trust fund kids vs public schools before Casablancas Enterprises was forced to fund new team uniforms for Weller and Richard snr decided sports were perhaps too _costly_ long term for someone with Dick's competitive enthusiasm.

"You had us worried to hell," Logan said, his incisive brown eyes roving over him. The golden hair looked limp, and his skin was pale and the hollows of his cheeks looked like the combined sum of the worst hangovers he'd ever had.

"Says the walking disaster magnet with accolades," Dick joked as if humor could just magic all the stress of the last few hours away.

"I don't know what you want me to bring you. I got home yesterday and all your stuff was gone," Logan swallowed, trying his best not to sound hurt or accusing, but it was still the truth.

"I'm sorry… I know I told you to stay in your lane, and I shouldn't have done that…" he said, shaking his head.

 _They were like the Winchester Brothers… they would choose each other, time and time again._

"Damn right you shouldn't have.. You're my best man, my Brother.. you aren't just my lane, we are family. You are the whole fucking highway… till the Grave man, that's what we said," Logan told him firmly. Dick swallowed blinking away the glistening in his eyes then nodded.

They'd talk… really talk, and soon.

Dick was going to talk Logan into going for therapy to help heal some, if not all of their past. He'd had enough of inner demons and watching his friend shadow box his monsters.

Wallace was a smart guy, they all needed to learn to communicate better, but first he had someone else high on his list of amends. Dick rubbed his hand along the stubble on his jaw.

 _He should get Logan to bring him a tooth brush, and some stuff to clean up._

People had always made him wary, the women in his life were avaricious, mercenary and aside from watching a besotted Veronica and Logan who only ever had eyes on each other. He'd assumed that love was a great big old con, up there with blue balls and promises of fairy-tale castles to charm the panties off cheerleaders and debutantes.

He'd used that screwed up wiring to think that Cindy MacKenzie was like all the others who coveted glittery shiny things, that getting pregnant was born from the most insipid ulterior motive other than a desire to be with him. The way he'd acted was completely unforgivable…

 _"I've never been as scared as when they put you on that table and took you away from me…"_

He'd almost died… and he'd never told her how he felt… that he loved her too.

 _She was safe, their baby was safe…_

"She was here all night?" Dick asked softly.

"Yeah," Logan answered. Thinking about Cindy and the baby brought all the apprehension of last night flooding right back.

"I'm gonna be a dad…" Dick said. Now he just had to figure out how to raise a kid and win back the love of his life without emulating his father. "I need to call my lawyer…"

"Why?" Logan asked in a concerned voice. The last time they'd gone down this road legal documents from Dick were forward to Cliff McCormack threatening to sue his ex-girlfriend Mac and financially ruin her.

"I need to get hold of my ex-wife" Dick explained looking around for his phone.

Dicks impromptu elopement to Vegas wasn't something they really mentioned. His roommate had plotted to set up a double date during Logan's previous break up with Veronica. Except the promised sister Heather who was 'just like his ex-wife's twin', ended up being eleven year old Heather. Logan had spent the next two days eating ice-cream and playing video games telling her all about his love troubles. She'd adorably sent a radio request to Veronica from Logan to help him win her back which ended in some awkward moments in the elevator.

"Really not sure where you are going with this…" Logan frowned.

"I have to talk to Heather!"


End file.
